The Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne: ‘Fanatics’ of the Sacred Heart

On Wednesday, Pope Francis approved the universal veneration of sixteen Discalced Carmelite martyrs who were killed on July 17, 1794, at the height of the French Revolution’s bloody persecution of the Catholic Church. The limited (mainly Catholic) press coverage so far of this decree focused on the wide fame of the Carmelite sisters (largely due to an opera written about them); and the use of equipollent canonization with their cause—a rare exercise by popes to recognize the Catholic faithful’s longtime veneration of holy people.

These noteworthy details of the Vatican’s announcement overshadowed a fundamental detail of their martyrdom—that they went to the guillotine for the “crime” of “fanaticism” for the Catholic Faith.

The Carmelites’ Way of the Cross

The Dicastry of the Cause of the Saints posted a short biography (only in Italian, as of today) of the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne after Pope Francis promulgated their immediate canonization. It noted that “the sixteen nuns were sentenced to death by the revolutionary tribunal for their loyalty to religious life, for ‘fanaticism’ in relation to [their] fervent devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and their attachment to…[royal] authority.”

Warren Carroll, a prolific historian and founder of Christendom College, gave additional details of the unjust prosecution of the sisters for their “fanaticism” in his 1986 book The Cross and the Guillotine:

On July 17 [1794] the sixteen sisters were brought before [Antoine Quentin] Fouquier-Tinville [the revolutionary prosecutor of Paris]….They were charged….with the catchall indictment by which any serious Catholic in France could be guillotined during the Terror: “fanaticism.” Sister Henriette…challenged Fouquier-Tinville to his face: “Citizen, it is your duty to respond to the request of one condemned; I call upon you to answer us and to tell us just what you mean by the word ‘fanatic.’” “I mean,” snapped the Public Prosecutor of the Terror, “your attachment to your childish beliefs and your silly religious practices.” “Let us rejoice, my dear Mother and Sisters, in the joy of the Lord,” said Sister Henriette, “that we shall die for our holy religion, our faith, our confidence in the Holy Roman Catholic Church.”

The French Revolution’s persecution of the Church may have reached its zenith during the Reign of Terror, but it began mere weeks after the storming of the Bastille. The National Constituent Assembly outlawed monastic vows and nationalized Church property in the autumn of 1789. It also abolished most religious orders by legislation passed throughout 1790.

The revolutionary government, under a far-left faction called the Montagnards, forced the Carmelite sisters of Compiègne out of their monastery (which was a short 50 miles or so away from Paris) in August 1790. St. Teresa of St. Augustine, the prioress, split the community into four, and the small groups found refuge in nearby residences. They continued their monastic way of life in secret as best as they could. However, in June 1794, raids by the authoritarian national government discovered this years-long arrangement, and they were arrested.

St. Teresa of St. Augustine had prepared her community for martyrdom nearly two years prior to their detainment. Carroll spotlighted in his book that she proposed “making an act of consecration by which…[the Carmelites] would offer itself as a sacrifice to appease the anger of God, so that the divine peace of His Dear Son would be brought into the world, returned to the Church and the State.” God accepted this offer in the summer of 1794, and the sisters of Compiègne arrived before Fouquier-Tinville’s tribunal.

The prosecutor’s reputation was so infamous that a 20th-century radical leftist—Vladimir Lenin—looked for someone equally ruthless: “Is it impossible to find among us a Fouquier-Tinville to tame our wild counter-revolutionists?”

The sisters ended their Way of the Cross just as the Savior had—ascending their Calvary the same day as their condemnation. The prioress led her community in singing the hymn “Veni Creator Spiritus;” as each sister renewed their religious vows before climbing the scaffold to their martyrdoms under the guillotine. Just ten days later, the Reign of Terror came to an end.

Fittingly, Fouquier-Tinville would fall prey to the same method of execution in May 1795—after sentencing not only the Carmelites to death, but also key figures such as Queen Marie Antionette.

A final recognition of the veneration of the Carmelites

Another important detail—missed by both official ecclesial documents and in press coverage—is that the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne were the first group raised to the altars by the equipollent canonization process. Previously, only individual saints and two separate duos—Sts. Cyril and Methodius (in 1880) and Sts. John Fisher and Thomas More (in 1935)—were canonized in this way.

The short biography of the French martyrs also outlined the extensive reasons why Pope Francis approved of their canonizations (the excerpt below is via Google Translate, with some slight edits):

After the beatification [in 1906], numerous communications of alleged miracles and graces received through the intercession of the Blesseds continued to arrive at the monastery of Compiègne. Therefore, the diocesan Bishop, the Postulator of the Discalced Carmelites and the Prioress of the monastery of Compiègne presented the request for an equivalent canonization, accepted by the Holy Father on 20 January 2022 who authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to follow the special procedure….

In fact, the story of these nuns had great resonance in the last century also thanks to literary works of significant value and considerable diffusion. In 1931 Gertrud Von Le Fort told the story of the Martyrs of Compiègne in her novel “Die Letzte am Schafott’ [known in the English-speaking world as “The Song at the Scaffold”], from which a film was made whose dialogues were made by the French writer George Bernanos, entitled “Le Dialogues de Carmélites”. The work, set to music by Francis Poulenc and performed for the first time at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1957, was then revived in many other theatres in Europe….

The story of the French Carmelites has widespread appeal throughout the world. Music fans—even non-Catholic and completely secularist—have come to appreciate the drama of their martyrdom through Poulenc’s opera. The newly canonized saints also have a long-time cultus amongst devotees of the traditional Latin Mass.

St. Teresa of St. Augustine and her Carmelite companions are an example to all Catholics who want to tenaciously cling to the faith in the midst of the ongoing rampage of the mutant ideological strains that originate from the French Revolution. May they pray for us now; and if God’s Providence leads us to the scaffold, may they pray for us and guide us at the hour of our deaths.