Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne

French holy card of the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne, date and artist unknown; swiped from Santi e BeatiAlso known as

  • Sixteen Blessed Teresian Martyrs of Compiègne

Memorial

Profile

Eleven Discalced Carmelite nuns, three lay sisters and two lay women servants who were martyred together in the French Revolution. They were the earliest martyrs of the French Revolution that have been recognized.

Died

  • guillotined on 17 July 1794 at the Place du Trône Renversé (modern Place de la Nation) in Paris, France
  • before their execution they knelt and chanted the “Veni Creator”, as at a profession, after which they all renewed aloud their baptismal and religious vows
  • the heads and bodies of the martyrs were interred in a deep sand-pit about thirty feet square in a cemetery at Picpus
  • as this sand-pit was the receptacle of the bodies of 1,298 victims of the French Revolution, there seems to be no hope of their relics being recovered
  • five secondary relics in the possession of the Benedictine sisters of Stanbrook, Worcestershire, England
  • in 2009, the Stanbrook sisters, and the relics, re-located to Wass, Yorkshire, England

Venerated

Beatified

Additional Information

MLA Citation

  • “Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne“. CatholicSaints.Info. 29 January 2022. Web. 29 April 2024. <>