Blessed Teresa of Sf. Augustine and Companions (1794)

Blessed Teresa and fifteen other Carmelite nuns were guillotined during the “Reign of Terror” of the French Revolution. Two years earlier they had made an Act of Consecration by which they offered themselves as a holocaust to bring peace to the Church and the country.

When they were arrested Sister Henriette exclaimed, “Let us rejoice in the joy of the Lord, that we shall die for our Holy Religion.” As each Sister ascended the guillotine, her companions sang the Veni Creator Spiritus. The normally noisy crowd was strangely silent, and a witness remarked, “They looked as if they were going to their wedding.” Within ten days of their death, the Reign of Terror ended.

Veni, Creator Spiritus

1. Veni, creator Spiritus mentes tuorum visita, imple superna gratia, quae tu creasti pectora.

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They offered their lives as a sacrifice to restore peace to France and to the Church.  As the Revolution raged around them, boiling over to the Reign of Terror, their prayer came to a climax when sixteen sisters fell victim to the guillotine.

The Revolutionaries regarded the Catholic Church with scorn, because they saw the institution as too tied to the order they sought to upend.  Contemplative orders, like the Carmelites, were targeted because they were not active.  The Carmelites offered nothing useful to France, in the eyes of the Revolutionaries.

In 1792, the community of Carmelite nuns at Compiègne was split up, forced to abandon the habits they wore, and kept under watch.  The sisters continued to meet and pray, and two years after their expulsion from the monastery, they were apprehended and jailed by the Revolutionaries.

On the day after a brief show trial, the sixteen Carmelite nuns were to be executed.  They were paraded through the streets of Paris wearing their habits, because their secular clothes were being washed.  As they approached the scaffold, they chanted the Veni Sancte Spiritus https://www.virgosacrata.com/veni-creator-spiritus.html and other hymns.  Each one ascended the stairs, renewed her vows before her prioress, Mother Teresa of St. Augustine, and then calmly placed her head inhttps://www.virgosacrata.com/veni-creator-spiritus.html the guillotine.

With each fall of the blade, the singing diminished, voice by voice.  After the sixteenth and final sister had died, there was silence.  This was unusual. Typically, an execution was preceded by a drumroll, and following the beheading, the crowd erupted in cheers, paradoxically believing that they were cheering for values such as freedom, equality, and reason.  This time, the mood was somber.  There were no drums nor cheering.  The crowd dispersed in silence.

The nuns offered their lives in the hopes that God would bring peace to their land.  Ten days after their execution, the Terror ended.

From the beginning of the Church, Christians have loved the land of their birth, and offered their lives for their countries, even when facing persecution.  These Carmelite sisters shared in Christ’s sacrifice in a most perfect way.  They show us how to live and love with grace and dignity in a time of upheaval.

May Teresa of St. Augustine and Companions, Blessed Martyrs of Compiègne, pray for us!

source: http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/fortnight-for-freedom/upload/Martyrs-of-Compiegne-Fortnight-2016.pdf

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These Blessed Sisters gave their lives for the Truth and to end the Reign of Terror. How far will I go in defense of the truths of the Faith?

Feast Day is July 17th

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Prayer for Canonization of the Martyrs:  Lord our God, You called the sixteen Blessed Carmelites of Compiègne to show You the greatest witness to love through the offering of their blood “so that peace may be restored to Church and State.”

Prayer of Petition: Remember the heroic and joyful fidelity with which they glorified You. May Your goodness manifest their favor at Your side, by granting through their intercession the grace that we ask of You in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. (mention petition here) Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Feast Day is July 17^th: 

The Martyrs of Compiegne were Carmelite nuns who were executed by the guillotine during the French Revolution on 17 July 1794, giving their lives for the end of the Reign of Terror. Within days it was the beginning of the end of the Reign.

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