Mother Teresa of Saint Augustine and her 15 companions, executed by guillotine in Paris while singing hymns of praise, are now eligible for worldwide veneration as saints in the Catholic Church. On December 18, 2024, the Vatican declared their equipollent, or "equivalent," canonization, acknowledging the enduring veneration of the Carmelite martyrs, who faced death with steadfast faith on July 17, 1794.
Their final act of courage and faith inspired Francis Poulenc’s well-known 1957 opera “Dialogue of the Carmelites,” based on the book of the same name written by famous Catholic novelist and essayist Georges Bernanos.
The martyrs, consisting of 11 nuns, three lay sisters, and two externs, were detained during a period of intense anti-Catholic persecution. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy, enacted during the French Revolution, had prohibited religious life, leading to the expulsion of the Carmelites of Compiègne from their monastery in 1792. Even while in hiding, the sisters continued their communal life of prayer and penance in secret.
Following the advice of the convent prioress, Mother Teresa of St. Augustine, the sisters took an extra vow to sacrifice their lives for the cessation of the French Revolution and for the Catholic Church in France. On the day they were executed, the sisters were paraded through the streets of Paris in open carts, facing insults from the assembled crowd. Unfazed, they sang the Miserere, Salve Regina, and Veni Creator Spiritus as they neared the scaffold.
Prior to their deaths, each sister knelt before the prioress, who granted them permission to die. The prioress was the final one to be executed, her hymn persisting until the blade descended. In the days that followed, Maximilien Robespierre was executed, marking the conclusion of the violent Reign of Terror.
The 16 martyrs were interred in a mass grave at Picpus Cemetery, where a tombstone honors their sacrifice. Beatified by Pope Pius X in 1906, their tale has inspired numerous books, films, and operas. The feast day for the Martyrs of Compiègne will continue to be observed on July 17, marking the anniversary of their martyrdom.
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