Remember Catholic martyrs of the French Revolution: the Carmelite Saints of Compiègne

01/02/25 • 29 min

You may not realize it, but the Catholic faith was one of the great targets of the French Revolution, birthing martyrs and saints from persecution and bloodshed. Sixteen Carmelite nuns were beheaded in 1794 for remaining true to their vows, and nothing more. During the so-called Reign of Terror which saw revolutionaries sniffing out real and imagined conspiracies, these nuns were expelled from their monastic life and offered a choice: renounce their faith, and submit to extreme secularism, or be deemed enemies of the state.

The prioress Mother Teresa of St. Augustine proposed the sisters offer their lives for the salvation of France, fulfilling a prophetic dream from another sister a hundred years before. The act of sacrifice was offered while the nuns sang hymns and prayed, guillotined in front of a crowd faced with the consequence of madness.

Faith Full is a Catholic podcast hosted by Tony Ganzer. This episode features Jonathan O'Brien, author of "Called to Compiègne": https://www.amazon.com/Called-Compi%C3%A8gne-Jonathan-Michael-OBrien/dp/B0D72K2F5F

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On a rainy night in Paris, the Catholic Bishop strikes the door of Notre Dame with his crozier, or staff, as French President Emmanuel Macron and mayor Anne Hidalgo look on. This ceremony on December 7, 2024, reconsecrated the Cathedral after the devastating fire in 2019.

To a Catholic, Notre Dame is God’s house. But to the French, it is part of the patrimoine, the collective French heritage and cultural identity of France. Yes, it’s still God’s house, but following the French Revolution France developed into a society governed by laicite—hyper secularism. During the Revolution, this Cathedral of Notre Dame was declared a temple of reason. Effigies were constructed on her floors. The traditional symbols and characteristics of true Catholicism, which is interwoven with France’s history, were eyed with suspicion. Priests and nuns were forced to take oaths to the republic, and those who didn’t were arrested.

I took a pilgrimage to France recently, and visited minor and major holy sites all over the country. I celebrated Mass at the cathedrals of Tours and Orleans, I prayed at the Marian apparition site of Pontmain, at the Abbaye of Mont Saint Michel, at Joan of Arc’s birthplace of Domremy La Pucelle, and where she saw the Dauphin crowned king in the cathedral of Reims. These and many other sites were powerful reminders of just how Catholic France was, and is, if you know where to look.

Americans often find a kinship in the idea of the French Revolution because a democracy emerged from the ruins of monarchy. But the story of the martyrs, now saints, of Compiegne, reminds us of the brutality. To learn more about these brave women religious I spoke with Jonathan O’Brien, a Catholic convert who was touched by the story of the nuns in Compiegne and wrote his book: Called to Compiegne. We spoke before Pope Francis formally declared the nuns as saints through what’s called equipollent canonization: the Church believes these women are in Heaven, without reported modern miracles, as is usually required.

I asked Jonathan what inspired him to dig deep into their history:

I asked Jonathan what inspired him to dig deep into their history:

Previous Episode

Gratitude and (almost) house fires

My house almost caught fire, and I had no idea of the danger until it was over, pieced together by burn marks on a wall and other clues around an old boiler system. I called a specialist to look at it, and he said bluntly: he’s come to believe things happen for a reason, and our house is still standing for a reason. I always try to express gratitude to others and to God, but as we come into the holiday season I thought this story was especially worth bringing to you all. Faith Full is a Catholic podcast hosted by Tony Ganzer. In this short episode we hear from Fr. Robert Nixon, OSB, translator of St. Aloysius Gonzaga’s Meditations on the Holy Angels. Plus an excerpt from St. Thérèse of Lisieux's autobiography "The Story of a Soul."

Visit our website: https://www.faithfullpod.com/ Donate: https://www.faithfullpod.com/support/ Subscribe on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/faith-full-podcast/id1363835811 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/34sSHs8hHpOCi5csuTtiIv When you know what you’re looking for the clues are obvious: burn marks on a wall, a tripped electrical breaker, and a broken boiler. In hindsight it’s easy. But in day-to-day life, it’s not. About a month ago I started to run my heating system before winter to make sure everything was working well. My house was built in the 1950s and part of the house has radiant floor heating. Essentially a gas-fired boiler heats up water that is sent through pipes under the floor. When it works, it works well! The boiler pilot light was out when I went to run my test, so I cleaned around the boiler and relit the light. The system kicked on, and for about two days it seemed to work well, until it didn’t. I played with the thermostat trying to get the system back on but it didn’t work. Around the same time, randomly, an electrical plug in my garage stopped working. It wasn’t clear the problems were related...(foreshadowing).

Ultimately I decided to call the heating repair company first to do a tune-up on the system and figure out what’s wrong. It took just a minute to see the problem. One of the burners was off its rack, and old fire-proofing material had crumbled. Flames had been shooting out the back of the unit onto the wall, ultimately hitting the wiring harness to the thermostat. “I’m not sure why they wired it like that,” the technician told me. “But it’s good they did.”

The melted wiring tripped the breaker and shut down the boiler, cutting the flow of gas and stopping the fire. The malfunctioning outlet must’ve been on an adjacent circuit or something. It’s still sinking in, just how fortunate we are that our home wasn’t taken in a fire, and the way the system was built in the 1950s kept us safe.

As Catholics, this brought a few things to mind for my wife and me: one about St. Thérèse of Lisieux and the other about angels. I’ve been given the gift of seeing a stone moved from my path: the fire threatened my home, the place that my family considers safe and secure. Even if the fire had started, we have smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, fire extinguishers–all things that would’ve likely kept us physically safe, but still would’ve lost property.

I hope that in my journeying toward Heaven that I can use the time, talents and experiences God has given me to show my gratitude. It’s a gratitude that extends beyond just the holiday season, of course, and is rooted deeply in what makes me, me. I’m just thankful to get to keep going, with a home that’s intact.

Thank you for listening to this short episode of Faith Full. Please share, like and subscribe if you find it worthwhile.