“As the French Revolution entered its worst days, sixteen Discalced Carmelites from the Monastery of the Incarnation in Compiègne offered their lives as a sacrifice to God, making reparation to him and imploring peace for the Church… they were arrested and thrown into prison. Their happiness and resignation were so evident that those around them were also encouraged to draw strength from God’s love. They were condemned to death for their fidelity to the Church and their religious life and for their devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Singing hymns, and having renewed their vows before the superior, Teresa of St. Augustine, they were put to death in Paris on July 17th, 1794. They were beatified by Pope St. Pius X on May 13, 1906.”
https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/07/15/compiegnelit24/
From Father Z:
Happy Feast of Blessed Teresa of St. Augustine and Companions, the Martyrs of Compiègne. Carmelites.
In 1794, the Place de la Nation on the east side of Paris was called the Place du Trône-Renversé… Toppled Throne Square.
In 1792 a guillotine was set up here and the killing began.
Robespierre and Barère made terror an instrument of governance:
“Terror is nothing more than speedy, severe and inflexible justice; it is thus an emanation of virtue”, quoth Robespierre.
Plus ça change. Could have been uttered in Texas… or the CDW… ooops… DDW.
On 17 July of this same year, 1794, 11 Discalced Carmelite nuns of the Carmel of Compiègne, together with three lay sisters and two tertiaries were guillotined and buried in a mass grave in the nearby Picpus Cemetery. They had for a while been living with English Benedictine nuns, who were forbidden their native England. The Carmelites dedicated themselves to prayer for the restoration of peace in France and for the Church. Hence, they were arrested, shifted to Paris, and publicly murdered for the encouragement of the mob.
As the Carmelite nuns, aged 30 to 78, went to the razor, they renewed their vows and sang the either the Salve Regina or the Veni Creator Spiritus, accounts vary.
One by one they knelt before the prioress and asked permission to die.
“Permission to die, Mother?”
“Go, my daughter!”
Here is the dramatized scene.
An excellent first-person account of what it was like to live through the transition from French Catholic Monarchy to the French Pagan Republic is the book: “A Family Of Brigands in 1793”, written by Marie De Sainte-Hermine.
She saw it all, and wrote of her experiences in a diary format intended for her children and grandchildren, so they would never forget where they came from, what sacrifices were made by those long dead who came before, their stories preserved in her accounts. What a fascinating life and time. She recounts it all, and saw it all. She, one of the few in her family of devout Catholics to survive.
Evil is manifested in the physical realm, but true evil and its conflict with holy – that is first and foremost spiritual.
The parallels she writes of, the insanity, the brutality … eerily similar to our day. Let it serve as a fascinating warming from the treasury of the Communion Of Saints.
https://angeluspress.org/products/a-family-of-brigands-in-1793-paperback
I find it amazing all these faithful people who died for God I’ve never heard of in history class. Or even heard or read about in church. I guess I’m saying I feel pretty ignorant about it all. So much I do not know. Realizing I’m so not up to snuff about any of it. And much of it hid away on purpose I’d bet.
Coming soon to a fading banana republic near you?
Yes we can!
Certainly today’s evil spirit permeating the world seems revolutionary …
The entire film of that clip you inserted (Les Dialogues des Carmelites) is worth a watch in its entirety. It’s a well made, well acted film, and even if you can’t find an English subtitle version, it’s easy to follow along.
This final scene is the most famous and definitely the most moving. Look careful and focus on the mob rather than the nuns. As the cart comes to the town square, the mob is every bit as savage as a bunch of planned parenthood activists when a woman changes her mind and chooses life.
Then, as the nuns are killed one by one, the savages in the mob gradually get more and more quiet until the only sound at the very end is the last nun singing the Veni Spiritus. Look closely and you’ll even see one boy in the audience wipe away a tear, shamed by the madness they’ve just witnessed.
https://youtu.be/8gryjBFGSuo?si=DJ6twkFmYjKnX9GS
If you use Plex or something similar, you can download the film from YouTube and then download the subtitles using the database.
In Francis Poulenc’s opera, the nuns sing in a slightly higher key each time the guillotine falls.
My youngest is named after Blessed Juliette Verolot.
That scene really underscores just how much satan hates God and the enormity of the sacrificial evil he demands from his acolytes.