Someone posted this on X last night. Heart-wrenching.
The French Revolution and the Decapitation of the Carmelites
July 17, 1794. Sixteen Carmelite nuns from the Compiègne convent were accused and tried, without due legal process, of religious fanaticism and conspiracy against the Republic.
When they were arrested, they made a vow of martyrdom, swearing to sacrifice themselves with joy, in the name of God, so that the madness of the Revolution might cease.
The nuns were placed in carts, and the revolutionaries in the square cheered with the arrival of each one. But when they realized they were religious sisters, the crowd began to fall silent until an absolute silence was established.
The revolutionaries hired women to “rouse” the others to shout and celebrate the deaths at the guillotine, but even they fell silent.
The only sound heard in the square was that of the sisters singing *Veni Creator Spiritus*.
In their executions, they were the only ones, among all the condemned, to walk upright, without needing to be dragged from their mobile cells. Mother Teresa of Saint Augustine, the eldest of them all, asked the executioner to leave her for last, so that she could thus give her final counsel to her flock.
The people could not believe what they were seeing. Then a voice arose from the midst of the crowd, crying out:
“Si ces femmes ne vont pas tout droit au paradis, alors il n’y a pas de paradis.” “If these women do not go straight to paradise, then there is no paradise.”
They were angels, as the eyewitnesses described them. The Carmelites wore a serene smile on their faces at the moment of meeting death, and the silence in the square only grew.
The eldest Mother needed the executioners’ help to climb the steps. They were weeping, and she said to them: “My friends, I forgive you with all my heart, just as I desire God to forgive me.”
The last guillotined silenced the angelic song of the Mother, and the square remained in profound silence.
I received the following this week:
“I want to first personally thank you. I “trained” with Cushman & Wakefield for 2 years, and yet 90% of the knowledge I use is from you. I know the main reason C-Loans exists is for business generation, but thank you for sharing your gift of teaching and story-telling. I would be out of business if it wasn’t for Blackburne University. I am still grateful for your training, as you saved me from becoming a bored, burned-out residential LO years ago. I learned more via George than 2 years at Cushman Wakefield.”
–Stuart Faass, Five Borough Capital. (Thanks, Stuart!)
The Fruits of Martyrdom
Many records were found of the impact they had on those who witnessed the faith of these martyrs as they refused to deny Christ. Some returned to the practice of the Church, others became religious, and some fled the revolutionary madness.
Ten days later, with the fall of Robespierre, the Reign of Terror came to an end.
