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Anniversary

Anniversary

When Mildred Barnes and Royall Tyler were together in Paris in 1902, they decided to undergo confession as Protestants "seeking light" and to pose questions to the priest, apparently in order to judge the Catholic Church’s honesty and sincerity as well as to be informed. The confession occurred on October 10, 1902, at the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which was chosen because it was not well known and therefore not likely to be visited by any of their acquaintances. Thereafter through 1908, the year of Mildred Barnes’s marriage to Robert Woods Bliss, Royall Tyler would speak of this event as their "anniversary" and, when possible, would visit the church on that date. For Royall Tyler’s narrative of this event, see The Early Letters (1902–1908).