Pope canonizes Discalced Carmelite nuns martyred during French Revolution

 

CV NEWS FEED // Pope Francis has canonized Discalced Carmelite Blessed Teresa of Saint Augustine and her 15 companions who were martyred in Paris, France, by guillotine during the French Revolution. 

On Dec. 18 the Dicastery for the Causes of the Saints announced that Pope Francis has declared Equivalent, or Equipollent, Canonization for the 16 Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Compiègne, who were martyred July 17, 1794. 

Equipollent Canonization is a form of canonization in which the pope does not use the usual steps, including formally attributed miracles and scientific investigation before declaring the person a saint.

According to Vatican News, in February 1790 amid the French Revolution, religious vows were provisionally suspended. Several months later in August, Revolutionary directors interviewed, individually, every nun in the Carmelite community in Compiègne asking them if they would renounce their vows. Every nun refused.  

 

 

Several years prior in 1786, the Carmelites’ prioress Mother Teresa of St. Augustine learned that another Sister, before taking her vows, had a prophetic dream of about a number of Carmelites being called to “follow the Lamb.” 

“Mother Teresa sensed the dream was a prophecy regarding her own community,” Vatican News reports. 

In April 1792, wearing the religious habit was made illegal in France, and the religious women’s monasteries were closed in August. After finding shelter, the nuns continued daily to offer their lives in prayer for France’s salvation, at the proposal of Mother Teresa of Augustine. 

The Reign of Terror started in September 1793. It was marked by a wave of public executions of people who were suspected of opposing the French Revolution, according to Britannica. Victims of the guillotine included priests and nobility, among others. 

In June 1794 the Committee of Public Safety, which essentially controlled the French government, obtained a law that “suspended a suspect’s right to public trial and to legal assistance and left the jury a choice only of acquittal or death,” according to Britannica.   

The nuns were arrested in June 1794 after it was apparent they were still following their vows, according to Vatican News. On July 17, the nuns received death sentences, and later that day, they were led through Paris to the guillotine. As they went, they sang the Divine Office. 

Vatican News reports: “The executioner also allowed the nuns to complete the prayers for the dying, which included the singing of the Te Deum. After the subsequent singing of the Veni Creator Spiritus, and the renewal of their vows, the nuns went one by one to the scaffold, received a final blessing from their Prioress, kissed a statuette of Our Lady, and followed the sacrificial Lamb.” 

The Reign of Terror ended 10 days later. 

As declared Dec. 18, 2024, Blessed Teresa and the 15 Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Compiègne are now formally inscribed in the catalogue of saints. 

https://catholicvote.org/pope-canonizes-discalced-carmelite-nuns-martyred-during-french-revolution/