Today is the Feast day of the Blessed Carmelite martyrs of Compiegne, France. These sixteen nuns were brutally guillotined during the French Revoluton’s murderous and un-Godly ‘Reign of Terror’. They offered up their lives that peace might reign in place of the senseless violence.

 

“the youngest of these good Carmelites was called first and that she went to kneel before her venerable Superior, asked her blessing and permission to die. She then mounted the scaffold singing Laudate Dominum omnes gentes. She then went to place herself beneath the blade allowing the executioner to touch her. All the others did the same. The Venerable Mother was the last sacrificed. During the whole time, there was not a single drum-roll; but there reigned a profound silence.”

 

They met their death singing! Laudate Domium omnes gentes—Praise the Lord, all you nations! Wow!

 

Sister Charlotte of the Resurrection, seventy-eight and an invalid, having been thrown roughly to the pavement from the tumbrel, was heard to speak words of forgiveness and encouragement to her tormentor. Sister Julie had an extreme horror of the guillotine; yet she refused to leave her sisters even when her family sent for her, saying, We are victims of the age, and we must sacrifice ourselves for its reconciliation with God.” Another witness said of the nuns, They looked like they were going to their weddings.”

 

They were going to their wedding. That’s where they’re praying for us from.

 

Please read more about these heroic women when you get a chance:

 

The Mantle of Elijah: The Martyrs of Compiègne as Prophets of Modern Age by Terrye Newkirk, OCDS

 

It was where I got the quotes from.