The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots during the French Wars of Religion .The massacre began in the night of 23–24 August 1572 (the eve of the feast of Bartholomew the Apostle), two days after the attempted assassination of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, the military and political leader of the Huguenots. ... The massacre also marked a turning point in the French Wars of Religion. Catherine De Medici established the January Edict: allows Protestants to worship publicly outside of France. ... It all ended when Guise Family killed a Protestant congregation and began war with Huguenots.