Teresa of Saint Augustine and 15 companions

The act that defines the Compiègne community is the collective vow of offering proposed by Mother Thérèse of Saint Augustine in 1792, after their expulsion from the monastery. The nuns offered themselves as a holocaust to appease the wrath of God and to obtain that peace be restored to the Church and the State, that is to say, the end of the Revolution and the persecution. According to sources, the commitment was initially accepted by the entire community with the exception of the two oldest, who subsequently asked to join, and it was renewed daily. Led to the scaffold on July 17, 1794, the sixteen Carmelites went to their deaths singing hymns and psalms from the liturgy. Testimonies report that they renewed their baptismal and religious vows aloud and intoned the Veni Creator, the Salve Regina, the Te Deum, and the Laudate Dominum, the latter being interrupted by the fall of the blade. The youngest, Sister Constance of Jesus, a novice, knelt before her prioress to receive her blessing before dying first; Mother Thérèse of Saint Augustine climbed the scaffold last after having accompanied each of her sisters.

The holiness recognized in the Carmelites of Compiègne lies in the coherence between their contemplative life and their death. Their martyrdom was not endured in resignation but offered: prepared by the vow of offering their lives, they faced the guillotine in calm, sustained by liturgical chant and the public renewal of their consecration. The accounts emphasize their charity toward their executioners and the crowd: according to reported testimonies, the prioress forgave her judges, not wishing to hold a grudge against "these poor wretches who are opening the gates of heaven for us." This dimension of oblation joins the Carmelite spirituality of the little way and total gift, and it has left a lasting mark on Christian memory. The reputation for holiness of these martyrs has never faded since 1794, which the Holy See explicitly recognized upon their inscription in the catalogue of saints. Their example is traditionally associated with the fact that the Terror ended ten days after their execution, with the fall of Robespierre on 9 Thermidor (July 27, 1794), a connection that spiritual tradition has readily linked to their offering for peace.

The process for the recognition of the martyrdom of the Carmelites of Compiègne led to their beatification on May 27, 1906, by Pope Pius X, under the title of Blessed Thérèse of Saint Augustine and her fifteen companions. More than a century later, on December 18, 2024, Pope Francis decided to extend their cult to the universal Church by inscribing them in the catalogue of saints through an equipollent canonization. This procedure, which does not require the recognition of a miracle, is based on the reputation of holiness of the martyrs, which has never wavered since their death, and on the martyrdom suffered in hatred of the faith (in odium fidei) on July 17, 1794, in Paris; the papal signature alone is sufficient to proclaim their holiness. The decree was prepared by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. The liturgical feast of the holy Carmelites of Compiègne is celebrated on July 17, the anniversary of their martyrdom. This canonization has prompted numerous thanksgiving celebrations, notably in Paris and Compiègne, and makes the sixteen martyrs one of the most emblematic groups of the religious persecutions of the French Revolution.

Beyond liturgical worship, the martyrdom of the Carmelites of Compiègne has deeply marked Christian culture and French national memory. Their history has nourished a rich artistic legacy: the novella The Last at the Scaffold by Gertrud von Le Fort (1931), then the play Dialogues of the Carmelites by Georges Bernanos, and finally the eponymous opera by Francis Poulenc, premiered in 1957, which gave their sacrifice a worldwide resonance. Figures of self-giving and courage in the face of persecution, they have become a point of reference for Carmelite spirituality and a symbol of Christian witness under regimes hostile to the faith. Their memory is maintained in Compiègne, where the memory of the community is perpetuated, as well as in Paris, at the sites of their martyrdom and their presumed burial place at the Picpus cemetery, where those guillotined at the Place du Trône-Renversé were interred in a mass grave. The canonization of 2024 has renewed the attention paid to their figure in the universal Church.