On this day, July 17 in 1794, in the midst of the French Revolution, 16 Carmelite sisters were guillotined
On this day, July 17 in 1794, in the midst of the French Revolution, 16 Carmelite sisters were guillotined : 11 Discalced Carmelite nuns, three lay sisters, and two tertiaries. They were executed near the end of the “Reign of Terror,” and are venerated as true saints and martyrs for the faith. One of the nuns, 78 year old Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified, was heard to say to her executioners, “I forgive you, my friends. I forgive you with all that longing of heart with which I would that God forgive me!” Collectively, these nuns are now remembered as the Martyrs of Compiègne. In the years of the French Revolution many thousands of other Catholics were killed by the guillotine, shootings, mob violence, forced drownings in the Vendee, and other forms of butchery. Two years earlier, in August 1792, the government ordered all women's monasteries closed; the seizure and removal of the Compiègne convent's furnishings occurred on 12 September, and the sisters were forced to leave the...