page_title: Martyrs of Compiègne
section_title: Martyrdom
hierarchical_section_title: Martyrs of Compiègne / Martyrdom
caption_attribution_description: English: Plaque at the Picpus Cemetery in Paris in memory of the 16 Martyrs of Compiègne, guillotined on 17 July 1794 and beatified by Pope Pius X on 27 May 1906. Français&#160;: Plaque au cimetière de Picpus, Paris 12e, en mémoire des 16 Carmélites de Compiègne, guillotinées le 17 juillet 1794 et béatifiées par le pape Pie X le 27 mai 1906.
context_page_description: The Martyrs of Compiègne were the 16 members of the Carmel of Compiègne, France: 11 Discalced Carmelite nuns, three lay sisters, and two externs. They were executed by the guillotine towards the end of the Reign of Terror, at what is now the Place de la Nation in Paris on July 17, 1794. They are the first martyrs killed during the French Revolution recognized as saints. They were beatified in 1902 and canonized in 1906. Their feast day is July 17.
  The French Revolutionary government passed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which outlawed religious life, in 1790. The Carmelite sisters living at the convent in Compiègne were allowed to remain there as wards of the state, which they did, until the end of 1791, when all clergy were forced to swear a civic oath. In 1792, the government ordered all women's monasteries closed; the sister were forced to leave their convent, hide in the city, and wear civilian clothes, since the wearing of habits and religious apparel had been outlawed. They continued to live as a community anyway, despite the government's orders.
context_section_description: On the night of July 17, 1794, the sisters were transported through the streets of Paris in an open cart, a journey that took two hours. During that time, they sang "hymns of praise", including the Miserere, the Salve Regina, the evening vespers, and the Compline. Other sources state that they sang a combination of the Office of the Dead, the vespers, the Compline, and other shorter texts. Onlookers berated them, yelling insults and throwing things at them. While waiting to be executed, a sympathetic woman from the crowd offered the sisters water, but Sister Mary-Henrietta stopped one sister from accepting, insisting that it would break their unity and promising that they would drink when they were in heaven.  A crowd gathered, as usual, at the Place du Trône Renversé (now called Place de la Nation), the site of the executions, to watch, but the sisters showed no fear and forgave their guards. The final song the sisters sang was Psalm 117,  "Laudate Dominum". Sister Constance, a novice, the youngest of the group and the first to die, "spontaneously" began the chant, but it was cut short by the guillotine blade. Each sister joined her and were silenced in the same way.
  The crowd became quiet as each sister approached Mother Teresa, kissed the statue of the Virgin Mary she held in her hands, and asked her for permission to die. After watching each sister die, she was the last one to place her head under the guillotine. Each sister knelt and chanted the "Veni Creator Spiritus" before their execution, "as at a profession", then renewed their baptismal and religious vows. Sister Charlotte, who at 78 years of age, was the oldest sister. She walked with a crutch and was unable to stand up and get out of the cart because her hands were tied and the other sisters were unable to help her. Eventually a guard gathered her up in his arms and threw her on the street; she lay face down on the pavement stones, with no signs of life as the crowd protested the guard's treatment of her. She stirred, lifted up her blood-smeared face, and warmly thanked the guard for not killing her, "thereby depriving her of her share in her community's glorious witness for Jesus Christ". Sister Mary-Henrietta stood by her prioress until it was her turn to die, helping the 14 other sisters climb the scaffold steps before climbing them herself, and was the second-to-last to die. Mother Teresa died last. 
  There are no surviving relics of the Martyrs of Compiègne because their heads and bodies were buried, along with 128 other victims executed that day, in a deep, 30-feet square sand-pit in the Picpus Cemetery. Their burial site, located in the back of the cemetery, is marked with two large, gravel-covered quadrangles. The heads and torsos of the 1,306 people who were guillotined at the Place de la Nation between June 13 and July 27, 1794 are buried there. Their names, including the 16 Martyrs of Compiègne as well as Mulot de la Ménardière, are inscribed on marble plaques covering the walls of a nearby church, where prayer is offered continuously. 24 other victims died with the sisters the day they were killed.
caption: Plaque at Picpus Cemetery dedicated to the Martyrs of Compiègne
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