Feast of the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne

What

Feast of the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne

When

7/17/2026

These eleven nuns, three lay sisters and two externs were killed by the order of the Committee for Public Safety, an agency of the National Convention of Revolutionary France. They were murdered in a public execution by guillotine on July 17, 1794.

Today is the anniversary of their martyrdom.

The sisters lived in a Carmelite convent of the Teresian reform (the reform of the great saint Teresa of Avila). This meant that their observance of their vows was strict and their lives were completely cloistered. They entered Carmel with the intention of never leaving its enclosure. There, in that space, they lived a life of prayer for the sake of the world by living apart from the world.

This commitment was also their crime.

The revolutionary government of France declared that the sisters of the Carmel of Compiegne were enemies of the state. Why? Because of their radical renunciation of worldly concerns, the consecration of their lives in humble service of Christ, and their observance of prayer as a total way of life. All this was considered to be a crime because it resisted what the state had determined and declared to be acceptable and reasonable behavior.

The sisters defied this ban on their way of life. They were arrested, placed on trial, accused of treason, sentenced to death.

The sisters were then transported to the town center where a frenzied mob awaited them.

But this execution would be different..... click here to continue to read the story