St Bartholomew's Day massacre. Historical engraving by Franz Hogenberg, of the St Bartholomew's Day massacre in Paris, France, in 1572. The St Bartholomew's Day massacre was a targeted group of assassinations, followed by a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) during the French Wars of Religion. It began during the night of 23-24th August 1572 (the eve of the feast of Bartholomew the Apostle), two days after the attempted assassination (upper right) of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, the military and political leader of the Huguenots.