On this day in 1794, sixteen members of the Carmelite Order (11 nuns, 3 lay sisters, and 2 tertiaries) were executed by guillotine in Paris. They were found guilty by a tribunal of the revolutionary government of France for refusing to observe the restrictions laid out by the Civil Constitution of The Clergy. This group of laws subordinated the Church, and all aspects of religious life in France, to a belligerent government.

When the Carmelites arrived at the guillotine platform, they renewed their religious vows, and then together sang the Veni Creator Spiritus. When the first nun mounted the steps she began singing the Salve Regina, all the other nuns joined in, and the singing continued until the last one was silenced by the falling blade. The crowd that was cheering at the first decapitation, as they usually did, had grown silent by the time the prioress was martyred.

The Benedictine nuns that were imprisoned with the martyred Carmelites credited their deaths with the end of the Reign of Terror just ten days later. Maximilian Robespierre, the man that had personally engineered the Reign of Terror, who was also personally responsible for the deaths of scores of Catholics and the campaign of de-Christianization of France, was felled by the same guillotine that he used to martyr so many.

Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne, pray for us.

These are the names of those martyred on that July day in 1794:

Mother Teresa of St. Augustine, prioress
Mother St. Louis, sub-prioress
Mother Henriette of Jesus, ex-prioress
Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified
Sister Charlotte of the Resurrection, ex-sub-prioress and sacristan
Sister Euphrasia of the Immaculate Conception
Sister Teresa of the Sacred Heart of Mary
Sister Julie Louise of Jesus, widow
Sister Teresa of St. Ignatius
Sister Mary-Henrietta of Providence
Sister Constance, novice

Lay sisters

Sister St. Martha
Sister Mary of the Holy Spirit
Sister St. Francis Xavier

Tertiaries

Catherine Soiron
Thérèse Soiron