Saintly Lives - The Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne

The information below was taken from this past Sunday’s church bulletin from one of our local parishes in Northeast Philadelphia.

In 1790, these nuns were persecuted for practicing their faith.  In our present day, we have other nuns, the Little Sisters of the Poor and Mother Angelica’s order, being persecuted as well and forced to provide contraception and abortifacients to their employees.  

The sisters in 1790 were martyred for their religious convictions.  Will we see a time when our religious orders will be martyred in this century for theirs?  I wonder how many of us would stand by and let that happen? Or will we be willing to sacrifice ourselves as well? 

                     

In 1790 a decree of the revolutionary French Republic suppressed all religious communities, save those engaged in teaching and nursing. One of the affected communities was a convent of Carmelite nuns in Compiegne.  They were forced to relinquish their habits, to dress in secular clothes, and to abandon their convent.  Nevertheless, in July 1794 sixteen nuns were arrested on the charge of continuing their illicit way of life and imprisoned in a former visitation convent.  Two weeks later they were transported to Paris.  By this time, judging that the moment for compromise had passed, they resumed their religious habits and openly recited the prayers of the Divine Office.

Their trial was brief.  They were convicted of having made themselves “enemies of the people by conspiring against its sovereign rule.” On July 17, 1794, they were transported by open wagons to the place of execution, all the while singing the Salve Regina and Veni Creator Spiritus – the hymn sung for profession of vows; and reciting the prayers for the dying. They were beheaded in turn, beginning with the novice, Sister Constance, and ending with the prioress, Mother Teresa of St. Augustine.  A witness said they looked as though they were going to their wedding.

These Carmelites were beatified in 1906.  Their story inspired a moving opera by Francois Poulenc, Dialogues of the Carmelites, for which Georges Bernanos provided the libretto.