THE CARMELITE NUNS of the FRENCH REVOLUTION
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September 15, 2021The Carmelite Nuns
For almost 1,300 years France was ruled by Christian kings. France was a Catholic country.
But in the late 1700’s revolutionaries overthrew the monarchy. In this French Revolution, there was a thirst for blood. Antiterrorists, clergy, common people were beheaded. In September 1792, the massacre included 223 priests. In January 1793, King Louis XVI was beheaded. Nine months later Marie Antoinette was beheaded. In 1794 from June 10th to July 27th , 40 people a day were beheaded.
Thousands of priests were executed or deported. Religious communities were dissolved. Church property was taken over. Priests were forced to take an oath saying they were subject to civil authority. Forty-Five Thousand nuns had to leave their convents.
How could this madness be stopped?
Sixteen Carmelite nuns had a possible solution. They were willing to offer their lives to bring peace. They prayed for that intention.- They were arrested as “enemies of the people”,
- Put on trial,
- And sentenced to death by being beheaded.
The first to be beheaded was the youngest, 29 yr. old Sr. Constance. She kissed the Crucifix, a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, sought permission from her superior to die, climbed the scaffold and was beheaded! All sixteen were beheaded.
Shortly after this, the Reign of Terror came to an end.
Did it end on account of these sixteen Carmelite nuns offering themselves as a sacrifice to end the terror of killing and unjust imprisonment? Only God knows the answer.
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There were so many executions during the French Revolution that a doctor wanted to make executions more humane. He invented a machine which became a symbol of the French Revolution. The machine was called the “Guillotine”, and the inventor was Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotine.
The last person to be guillotined in France was Jacques Fesch on October 1, 1957. He killed a policeman. He was an atheist and converted to Catholicism over the years that he was incarcerated.
