Pope Francis on Wednesday decided to make the Martyrs of Compiègne officially saints. It was a rare decision, in that no one in the Church disagreed with it.
In order to understand why the decision met with basically universal applause, it’s important to know the story of the sixteen Carmelite sisters guillotined in Paris on 17 July 1794 during the blood-soaked and chaotic phase of the French Revolution known as the Reign of Terror.
Ten days after the execution of the martyrs, the principal motor of the Terror, Maximilien Robespierre, went to the guillotine himself, ending the Terror.
At least 35,000 people perished in the Reign of Terror, usually in front of cheering crowds.
The religious sisters were convicted of hostility to the French Revolution, sympathies to the monarchy, and for continuing in consecrated life, which had been made illegal by the revolutionary government.
The Carmelites were singing as they climbed the scaffold to their death. The people watching were unusually silent. Many historians think the execution of the religious sisters shocked – and maybe shamed – the people of the French capital, and so contributed to the end of the Terror soon after.
Pope St. Pius X beatified the religious sisters in 1906, but they haven’t got the recognition of a miracle required for canonization according to the usual process.
However, this hasn’t prevented them from being featured in many artistic renderings in France, including novels and plays.
Source: Cruxnow
