The Blessed Martyrs of Compiègne [July 17]

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In September of 1792, by decree of the French Revolution’s National Assembly, the Carmelites of Compiègne, France, had been cast out of their convent and forced to live as private citizens. Though they had been required to give up their religious habits and wear lay clothes, the nuns bravely continued to follow their Rule and to meet daily to recite communal prayers. This insistence on living out their vows coupled with their refusal to take the oath of allegiance to the new constitution ultimately led to their arrest and imprisonment on June 22, 1794.

Convicted of crimes against the state on July 17, 1794, the sixteen Carmelite nuns met their deaths by the guillotine in Paris. The usually raucous Parisian crowd was utterly silent as the nuns mounted the scaffold singing the Salve Regina and the Veni Creator after having first renewed their vows of baptism and religious profession. The first to go to her death was the novice, Sister Constance (Marie-Geneviève Meunier); the last to die was the Prioress, Mother Teresa of St. Augustine (Madeleine-Claudine Ledoine). The oldest of the nuns at the age of 79 was Sister of Jesus Crucified (Marie-Anne Piedcourt), who said to her executioners, “I forgive you as heartily as I wish God to forgive me.”

The heads and bodies of the martyrs were thrown into a deep sandpit in a cemetery at Picpus. Because this pit contains over 1300 victims of the Revolution, there seems to be no hope of their relics being recovered; however the Benedictine nuns of Stanbrook Abbey, Worcestershire, England, have five articles of the Carmelites’ clothing which was given to members of their order who had been imprisoned with the Carmelites in Paris.

The martyrs of Compiègne have been models of inspiration for all Carmelites, including Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Saint Julie Billiart, Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat, Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, Blessed Titus Brandsma, and Saint Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein). Their story has been the subject of numerous articles, books, a film, and even an opera, Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites .

Source: catholicexchange.com/2009/07/17/113180/

And now you know where the Catholic Quote comes from. 🙂
 
I’m reading [aloud] an excellent book on the Compiegne Martyrs, ‘To Quell the Terror’, by William Bush. It’s the ‘true story’ of the martyrs and what they went through during the Reign of Terror.

The Russian Orthodox Church has a martyr who is commemorated this month: St. Elizabeth Feodorovna. She was born a German Grand Duchess, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. One of her ancestors is St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Elizabeth married Grand Duke Serge of the ruling Romanov family, converted to Orthodoxy [she was born Lutheran], and became an Orthodox nun after her husband’s assassination by terrorists.

Elizabeth died on July 17, 1918, the day after her younger sister Alix, who married Czar Nicholas II and became Empress Alexandra Feodorovna on her conversion to Orthodoxy. Nicholas, Alexandra, their four daughters and one son, and four servants were murdered in cold blood by the Bolsheviks. Elizabeth, her nun-assistant Sister Barbara, and four Romanov Grand Dukes were imprisoned by the Bolsheviks, then thrown down an abandoned mine shaft in the Ural Mountains of Russia, and died from hunger, exposure, and wounds suffered as they were thrown in.

Elizabeth’s and Sister Barbara’s bodies were recovered by the White Russian forces, and taken to Jerusalem, where they were buried in the Church of St. Mary Magdalen on the Mount of Olives.

In 1998 or 1999, St. Elizabeth of Russia’s statue was one of twelve 20th-century martyrs to be installed over the West Door of Westminster Abbey in London. The ceremony was attended by Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, who both have a blood relationship with the martyr.
 
Oooh very interesting! Thanks to both Eucharisted and Barb Finnegan for posting this. 👍
 
Wonderful and inspiring story - and ‘Dialogue des Carmelites’ is a fantastic presentation of it.

I’m scratching my head about why this is in the ‘Catholic News’ section though - a 200+ year old even ain’t news 🤷

Methinks it needs moving.
 
I’m so happy that these martyrs are being talked about more. “The Dialogues of the Carmelites” was the first opera I ever performed in and where I first learned about their story after doing research on the true story to prepare for the opera. They seemed to have been forgotten for a while, but I can say for almost anyone I know who first became familiar with these martyrs (albeit the main characters in the opera are fictional) through the opera they were all touched and moved by it. Almost all of them, including myself, had no idea about these martyrs or that religious were guillotined during the Reign of Terror.
 
Today the Church honors Blessed Teresa of Augustine and the Martyrs of Compiègne, France, who were guillotined on July 17, 1794, at Place du Trône Renversé (now Place de la Nation) in Paris, France.
newadvent.org/cathen/14517a.htm

This is a homily commemorating their martyrdom by Fr. Steve Grunow (Word on Fire):

*"I think that it is worthwhile today to remember the 16 Martyrs of the Carmel of Compiègne in France.
*
These eleven nuns, three lay sisters and two externs were killed by the order of the Committee for Public Safety, an agency of the National Convention of Revolutionary France. They were murdered in a public execution by guillotine on July 17th, 1794.

*Today is the anniversary of their martyrdom."

***Read more here…
**wordonfire.org/WoF-Blog/WoF-Blog/July-2012/Spirituality-The-Carmelite-Martyrs-of-Compiegne.aspx

And below is a link to the final scene of Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites.
(In the opera, the 16 martyrs sing the Salve Regina rather than the Veni Creator Spiritus as they go to the guillotine.)

youtube.com/watch?v=e2ubBODy4N0

*Salve Regina, mater misericordiae, vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae. Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia, ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte. Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.

O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria. Amen.
**Blessed Teresa of Augustine and Martyrs of Compiègne,
pray for us.
**
 
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