The Long March Home to the Valleys

In 1686, the Duke of Savoy expelled the Waldensians from their alpine valleys in northern Italy. These believers, who had quietly maintained their faith for centuries in the Piedmont mountains, were scattered overnight. Soldiers burned their churches, killed thousands, and marched the survivors into exile across the Alps. Families who had worshipped in the same stone chapels for generations found themselves wandering foreign roads, weeping for a homeland that God had seemingly abandoned.…