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
Chapters
0:00 Introduction
1:58 Notre Dame Cathedral and Catholic France
3:52 Revolution and sainthood
4:54 Why Jonathan O'Brien wrote about the martyrs of Compiegne
8:27 The story of the Carmelite nuns of Compiegne
10:56 When revolutions force people to act against God
13:44 Suffering and martyrdom of the nuns of Compiegne
17:48 Secularism in modern France and Catholic history
22:08 Jonathan O'Brien's journey to Catholicism
26:25 A new convert's message about the importance of Compiegne
28:12 Conclusion
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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: