Many of you already know the story of the Carmelite nuns who were executed in the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century. On 17 July 1794, the enemies of the Church led to the guillotine eleven Discalced Carmelite Nuns, three lay sisters and two tertiaries. These holy nuns even went so far as to ask permission of their Mother Superior to die under obedience. They were granted their final request on earth. They offered up their martyrdoms for the Catholic Church and for the end of the Revolution in France.Ten days after their offering and execution, Robespierre was executed himself. This officially ended the “Reign of Terror.”Wikipedia explains: In 1794, after the Terror began, the government searched the sisters’ apartments for two days; they found letters revealing their “crimes” against the Revolution, which included hostility to the Revolution, strong sympathies to the monarchy, and evidence that they continued to live as a community of consecrated Christian women. They also found two letters written by “the unfortunate” Mulot de la Ménardière to his cousin, Sister Euphrasia of the Immaculate Conception, containing unfavorable criticisms of the Revolution. Mulot was accused of helping them and of being a non-juring priest, even though he was married, and was arrested and imprisoned with the sisters. On 22 June, the sisters and Mulot were arrested and locked up in the former convent of the Visitation, an improvised jail for political prisoners in Compiègne. On 10 July 1794, they were transferred to the Conciergerie Prison in Paris to await trial. The sisters recanted their civic oath while in prison.

Originally published in Padre Peregrino. Read original article