Ecclesiastical Prayer.

O God, who by Thy divine inspiration inspired Thy Blessed Martyrs to give themselves in sacrifice, in order to obtain an end to unholy reign, and to obtain Thy mercy by shedding their own blood, grant, we beseech Thee, that by their merits and through them we may direct all our zeal to remain faithful to Thee.

Through Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Martyrs of the anti-Catholic French Revolution, the Carmelite nuns of Compiègne, France, were beatified on 27 May 1906 by St Pius X.

The Carmelite nuns lived in a convent in Compiègne, which was closed by the revolutionary authorities in 1792. On 14.09.1792, in accordance with the decision of the self-proclaimed authorities, the nuns left their convent and put on secular clothes. They then divided themselves into four groups living in neighbouring houses close to each other. For the next two years they lived in these houses, observing the rules of the order.

In 1794, the Carmelite nuns were accused by the public prosecutor Quentin Fouquier-Tinville of living in a monastic community. They were arrested on 22 June and imprisoned in the former convent of the Visitation Sisters. On 12 July, they were taken to the Conciergerie prison in Paris and sentenced to death five days later. They were guillotined on 17 July in the Place du Trône Renversé (now Place de la Nation). They went to the guillotine singing the hymn Salve Regina. The Mother Superior was the last to be executed (which happened at her request, as she wanted to strengthen the sisters). The bodies of the 16 nuns were thrown into a pit of sand in the Picpus cemetery, where, years later, 1,298 victims of the terror of the revolution were counted, so that there was virtually no chance of finding the martyrs’ relics.