Marie du jour, 27 May: Holy Martyrs of Compiègne

Before mental prayer

My God, I offer unto Thee the prayer which I am now about to make, and I unite it to that which my Saviour ceaseth not to offer Thee for me in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. I beseech Thee to grant me the grace to make it in a manner worthy of Thee.

After mental prayer

My God, I give Thee thanks for the grace which Thou hast deigned to bestow upon me, in permitting me to abide in Thy holy presence. I implore Thy pardon, O my God, for all the distractions into which I have suffered myself to fall during this time of prayer. I offer unto Thee the resolutions which, by Thy mercy, Thou hast inspired within me. I entreat Thee to grant me the graces needful for their fulfillment, through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the intercession of the Most Holy Virgin, of Thy holy angels, and of all the saints.

Saint Teresa of St. Augustine and Companions

Prayers written on the inside cover of the Psalter of the Virgin

Note: These prayers appear to have been handwritten on the inside cover of a printed Psalter of the Virgin, possibly used by the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne. These devotional books, often attributed to St. Bonaventure and widely printed in the 17th–18th centuries, offered a Marian framework for mental prayer and spiritual offering. According to Father Stéphane-Marie, o.c.d., the volume is preserved today in the Archives of the Carmelite Monastery of Le Havre (Archives du Monastère des Carmélites du Havre), where these prayers were found on the pages de garde.

Morgain, S 2023, Les Carmélites Martyres De Compiègne : Pour La Paix De L’église Et De L’état, Nouvelle édition revue et augmentée, Éditions du Carmel, Toulouse.

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Christ in dialogue with the Virgin Mary, illumination from the Chartres Bible, Chartres, 1146–1155. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Latin 116, fol. 12r. (Public domain). You can learn more from the British Library’s Medieval Manuscripts Blog.

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
Which prayers do I habitually offer before and after my time of mental prayer? Or, what prayers might help me to begin practicing Carmelite mental prayer?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#MartyrsOfCompiègne #mentalPrayer #MotherOfGod #offering #StTeresaOfStAugustine #thanksgiving #vocalPrayer

Quote of the day, 27 May: St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

Throughout her stay in Carmel, Elizabeth lived with the very real threat of being expelled from France, along with her entire community. The liturgical calendar of Carmel, composed in 1905 (for the year 1906) mentions that, out of the 117 French Carmels, 38 actually were expelled.

On 1 July 1901, one month before Elizabeth entered Carmel, the Waldeck-Rousseau government promulgated the law concerning associations, which was aimed primarily at religious congregations. They had to ask for legal authorization before October 3, present their financial balance sheet, and an inventory of their goods.

For decades, the Catholic Church in France had been facing a headwind. The painful memory of the French Revolution and its martyrs a century earlier was still alive and, in the minds of young Christian idealists like Elizabeth, the idea of martyrdom could resurface from time to time, following the example of the Carmelites of Compiègne who were guillotined. She entered Carmel with this readiness for martyrdom, as she had declared to Marguerite Gollot when they were postulants “outside the walls”: “So, what happiness to go together to martyrdom!… I can hardly think of it… it’s too good!” (Letter 57).

Conrad De Meester, O.C.D.

Chapter 22, Partir en exil à l’étranger?

Note: The Mass and rite of beatification of Mother Teresa of St. Augustine and the Martyrs of Compiègne took place in Rome on Sunday, 27 May 1906. Later that year, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity attended a triduum celebrated in mid-October by the Carmel of Dijon in their honor. Their canonization—formally approved by Pope Francis on 18 December 2024—was the final one he authorized before his death.

de Meester, C 2017, Rien moins que Dieu: sainte Elisabeth de la Trinité, Presses de la Renaissance, Paris.

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
How am I inspired by the Holy Martyrs of Compiègne in my own faith and witness?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#anniversary #beatification #CarmelOfDijon #history #inspiration #martyrdom #MartyrsOfCompiègne #StElizabethOfTheTrinity

Marie du jour, 14 May: St. Teresa of St. Augustine

O loving Queen, Mother of might most holy,
O deign to place us all within thy breast!
For in thy power, thy children all, though lowly,
Do set their hope, trusting in thy behest.

Saint Teresa of St. Augustine

Excerpt from a Christmas carol

Note: Saint Teresa of St. Augustine, the prioress of the martyred Discalced Carmelite nuns of Compiègne, was born Marie Madeleine Claudine Lidoine in Paris on 22 September 1752. When she presented herself as a candidate for formation in the Carmel of Compiègne, she lacked the necessary dowry that postulants were expected to provide to support the community’s needs.

At that time, the prioress of the Carmel of Saint-Denis was Venerable Mother Teresa of St. Augustine—lovingly remembered by her baptismal name, Madame Louise—the daughter of King Louis XV. Upon learning of the young candidate’s financial difficulty, Madame Louise generously supplied the remaining funds needed for Madame Lidoine’s admission.

In gratitude for her benefactor’s generosity, the novice took the same religious name: Teresa of St. Augustine. That generosity would be repaid in sanctity. As prioress of Compiègne, Mother Teresa of St. Augustine led her sisters joyfully and courageously to the scaffold in revolutionary Paris on 17 July 1794. On 18 December 2024, the Church declared them Saints by equipollent canonization.

Virgin and Child, Anthony van Dyck (1620)

Bush, W. 1999, To quell the terror: the mystery of the vocation of the sixteen Carmelites of Compiègne guillotined July 17, 1794, ICS Publications, Washington, D.C.

Featured image: Virgin and Child by Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, 1599–1641), oil on wood, ca. 1620. Image credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. (Public domain)

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
How can I entrust my hopes to Mary, asking her to hold me close within her heart?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#dowry #hope #MadameLouise #MartyrsOfCompiègne #MotherOfGod #QueenAndBeautyOfCarmel #StTeresaOfStAugustine #trust

Quote of the day, 7 May: Pope Pius VI

As revolutionary forces targeted France’s monasteries, Pope Pius VI turned to faithful bishops with a plea: defend the nuns. Among them were the Discalced Carmelites of Compiègne, who would one day offer their lives rather than renounce their vows. And in their hour of trial, the voice of Peter answered their faith with fatherly courage.

To what we have already said regarding the vows of religious, we must now add the inhuman decree pronounced against the consecrated virgins—that they be removed from their cloisters, as Luther did, who (to use the words of Adrian VI) “did not fear to profane those vessels consecrated to God, to drag out of their monasteries the virgins dedicated to Jesus Christ who had professed the monastic life, and to return them to the world—or rather, to the devil, whom they had previously renounced.”

And yet the nuns—who are in fact the most illustrious part of Christ’s flock—have often, by their prayers, averted immense calamities from cities. Saint Gregory the Great recalls that this happened in his time in Rome: “If there were no consecrated virgins among us, not one of us would have survived for so many years in this place amidst the swords of the Lombards.” And Pius VI, speaking of his own nuns in Bologna, testifies that “this city, long oppressed by many misfortunes, could not have endured had divine wrath not been in some measure appeased by the continual and fervent prayers of our religious women.”

Meanwhile, the nuns of France—now in the deepest desolation—move our hearts with the tenderest compassion. Many of them, from across the provinces, have written to us of their anguish: they are being prevented from persevering in their institutes and from observing their solemn vows. Yet they have also declared to us their firm and unwavering resolve: they are determined to endure every hardship rather than abandon their vocation.

Therefore, beloved sons and venerable brothers, we cannot help but commend to you, in the fullest manner, their steadfastness and courage. We earnestly entreat you to encourage them with your exhortations, and to offer them—so far as lies within your power—every possible assistance.

Pope Pius VI

Quod Aliquantum, 10 March 1791

Pius VI 1791, Breve Quod Aliquantum, Rome, 10 March. Addressed to Dominique Cardinal de La Rochefoucauld, Archbishop of Rouen, and to Archbishop Jean-de-Dieu-Raymond de Boisgelin de Cucé of Aix, along with other bishops who had signed the Exposition on the Principles of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Italian text available at vatican.va.

Translation from the Italian text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: This detail from a stained glass window depicting the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne was designed by stained glass artist Sister Margaret of the Mother of God, O.C.D. (Margaret Rope). It is one of her most famous windows in the chapel of the Carmel of Quidenham, England. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
What does it mean for me to stand with those who remain faithful at great personal cost?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#FrenchRevolution #MartyrsOfCompiègne #nuns #perseverance #PopePiusVI #repression #StTeresaOfStAugustine #vows

Quote of the day, 22 January: Blessed Teresa of Guadalajara

Blessed Teresa of the Child Jesus and St. John of the Cross: Her desires for martyrdom

Let us begin by recounting the episode that happened to Sister Teresa when the parish priest in her hometown of Mochales headed a letter to her in (he thought) a joking and witty way, and wrote, “Viva la Republica!” (“Long live the Republic!”).

Sister Teresa, with her characteristic ardor, responded:

“To your ‘Viva la Republica!’ I answer with a ‘Viva Cristo Rey!’ (“Long live Christ the King!”), and I hope someday to be able to shout it or say it before a firing squad!”

Her desire was to turn into a prophecy, and the prophecy did indeed have its bloody fulfillment. The letter to her friend, Sister Maria of Saint Teresa… was indeed headed with the words “Viva Cristo Rey!” Other letters had this heading too. It seems that this was a dress rehearsal, in ink, of the final cry of her life, which would be empurpled with her generous blood.

Concerning Sister Teresa, always the intrepid one, another nun commented:

“I remember that she used to voice her desire for martyrdom; she and I used to vie for the honor of breaking through the turn and going to save the Blessed Sacrament, if the Reds were to enter the monastery.”

During one of the last meals that the community ate in the monastery, Sister Teresa said with great enthusiasm, “We must eat a lot in order to have plenty of blood to shed for Cristo Rey.”

Throughout her religious life, Sister Teresa manifested her desire for martyrdom many times. She aroused her ardor by reading of the blessed fight waged by the Catholics in Mexico during the “Cristero” rebellion. On extraordinary recreation days, when the younger sisters would present performances of a spiritual nature, she loved to act out scenes of the Mexican martyrs, who died with the cry, “Viva Cristo Rey!” Here we see another rehearsal of what awaited her.

It is not surprising that we find a holy card of the Martyrs of Compiègne among the mementos of Sister Teresa.

José Vicente Rodríguez, o.c.d.

Chapter 5, Martyrdom

Blessed Teresa of the Child Jesus and St. John of the Cross
Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

Rodriguez, J 2016, The Dialogues of the Carmelites of Guadalajara: The Story of Three Martyred Carmelite Nuns of the Spanish Civil War, translated by the Carmel of St. Joseph, Carmelite International Publishing House, Trivandrum.

Featured image: The Blessed Martyrs of the Carmel of Guadalajara, Spain are depicted in this painting. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

#BlessedMartyrsOfGuadalajara #BlessedTeresaOfTheChildJesusAndOfStJohnOfTheCross #holyCard #lastWords #martyrdom #MartyrsOfCompiègne #practice #VivaCristoRey

Bernanos was totally wrong in regard to Christianity and the French Revolution. There had never been a “good” Revolution in 1789 which, Bernanos maintained, had turned “bad” only in 1793.

The destruction of Christianity was blatantly present from the very beginning, as is incontrovertibly proven by the simple fact that on October 29, 1789, no more than three and a half months after the fall of the Bastille, the taking of all religious vows was forbidden in France.

Sister Constance in the monastery at Compiègne, for example, could never make her profession as a Carmelite before going to the guillotine five years later. Further proof existed in the fact that just four days after this October 29 decree, on November 2, the totality of church property throughout all of France was confiscated and declared property of the state, completely stripping religious communities of their means of income.

Thus, from its very beginning, the total eradication of religious orders in France was a clearly stated purpose of the Revolution, as was also the humiliation of the once proud Church of France, brought to her knees before her sanguinary enemies by the decree of November 2, 1789. Her confiscated goods would finance the Revolution for ten years.

Professor William Bush

Author’s Foreword

What was this fatal decree?

Sr. Marie of the Incarnation, the sole surviving Carmelite of Compiègne and the first biographer of the martyrs, tells us that Blessed Constance entered the Carmel of Compiègne on May 29, 1788, and was clothed in the habit of Carmel on December 13 of that year. Canonically, she was set to profess her perpetual vows in December 1789. Professor Bush notes that Blessed Teresa of St. Augustine intended to allow Sr. Constance to make her vows on the anniversary date.

A Turning Point for France

On Tuesday, July 14, 1789, revolutionary insurgents stormed the Bastille, a royal fortress in Paris. Their successful siege and capture of the commander marked a decisive shift in Paris, turning popular sentiment toward the revolution and away from King Louis XVI’s weakening administration. Soon, the revolutionary spirit spread across France.

New Cause, New Laws

Meanwhile, in the Constituent Assembly—a governing body formed in June 1789—deputies, emboldened by these events, moved to create new laws aligned with the revolutionary cause. Today, thanks to the collaboration between the French National Library and Stanford University, we can read the daily acts of the Constituent Assembly and discover exactly how the fatal decree of October 28-29, 1789, came into being. Below, we present our translation of the daily proceedings (in italics) from the Assembly’s Wednesday session on October 28, along with a brief commentary for clarity.

Mr. Rousselet
On behalf of the reporting committee, Mr. Rousselet presents letters from two monks and a nun, requesting the Assembly to clarify its stance on the profession of vows. He suggests prohibiting perpetual monastic vows.

Michel-Louis Rousselet
1746 – 1834

Michel-Louis Rousselet was a deputy from the bailiwick of Provins (Seine-et-Marne), located southeast of Paris. Although he served in the Assembly for only two years—from March 30, 1789, to September 30, 1791—those years proved pivotal for Catholics in France. His report, which called for the suspension of religious vows in monasteries, received the support of Guy-Jean-Baptiste Target, a deputy from the bailiwick of Paris-Outside-the-Walls.

Guy-Jean-Baptiste Target
1733 – 1806

Here, we continue to translate the proceedings from that fateful day in the Assembly…

Mr. Target
Mr. Target requests a postponement on the core issue and proposes the following decree:

“Upon reading the report…the Assembly postpones the question of professing vows but provisionally decrees that the profession of vows will be suspended in monasteries of both men and women.”

Several clergy [who were deputies] argue that this provisional suspension effectively decides the question and invoke the regulation requiring three days of discussion for major issues.

The decree proposed by Mr. Target is adopted.

[Following this, the Assembly session addresses unrelated matters.]

French Revolution Digital Archive
A collaboration between the Stanford University Libraries and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France
Tome 9 : Du 16 septembre au 11 novembre 1789, Séance du mercredi 28 octobre 1789, Séance du jeudi 29 octobre 1789, pages 597–598

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
PRESIDED OVER BY MR. CAMUS
SESSION OF THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1789

After the secretary reads the minutes,

Mr. de Bonnal
Takes the podium to make what he calls “a few protests” against the decree from the previous day. He asserts that the clergy should have raised objections, and requests that his own be recorded under the title of “observations.”

Mr. Target
Mr. Target notes that traditionally, the minutes do not include individual protests made against the Assembly’s decrees.

This brief dispute concludes with a ruling on the previous question.

The President
The President then calls for the day’s agenda.

Bush, W. 1999, To quell the terror: the mystery of the vocation of the sixteen Carmelites of Compiègne guillotined July 17, 1794, ICS Publications, Washington, D.C.

de l’Incarnation, M 1836, Histoire des religieuses carmelites de Compiègne conduites a l’échafaud le 17 juillet 1794: Ouvrage posthume de la soeur Marie de l’Incarnation, T. Malvin, Sens. Accessed 16 July 2021, babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c041438717&view=1up&seq=117

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: This detail from a stained glass window depicting the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne was designed by stained glass artist Sister Margaret of the Mother of God, O.C.D. (Margaret Rope). It is one of her most famous windows in the chapel of the Carmel of Quidenham, England. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/10/28/bush-29oct1789/

#BlessedConstance #constituentAssembly #FrenchRevolution #history #inspiration #MartyrsOfCompiègne #persecution #religiousProfession #vows

We are going to have very beautiful feast days in honor of our blessed martyrs of Compiègne on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

I will be able to attend them in a little tribune, for Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus granted my prayer three months ago by giving me the strength to take a few steps, which had been impossible for me.

That is a great consolation to me, for I can spend many hours in the dear little tribune, which has a grille opening on the sanctuary; I go to seek strength there, close to Him who has suffered so much because “he loved us exceedingly” [Eph 2:4], as the Apostle says.

Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity

Letter 324 to Germaine de Gemeaux (excerpt)
Around 10 October 1906

Biographer and editor Conrad de Meester, O.C.D. mentions that the Carmelites of Dijon celebrated the beatification of the Martyrs of Compiègne for three consecutive days: Saturday through Monday, 13 through 15 October 1906.

Mother Teresa of St. Augustine Lidoine and the Martyrs of Compiègne were beatified on 27 May 1906 by St. Pius X in St. Peter’s Basilica. Father de Meester notes that during this October triduum, Père Vallée, the prior of the Dominican friars at Dijon, preached at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament on 13 and 14 October.

Then Bishop Dadolle of Dijon celebrated a pontifical Mass in the morning on Monday 15 October for the solemnity of St. Teresa of Avila; he also was the preacher for Benediction later in the day.

There was a window with a grille in the second-floor infirmary that permitted Elizabeth to look down on the sanctuary during the Mass and Benediction and to pray near the tabernacle whenever she desired (Cf. Photograph 191 on page 126 in Light, Love, Life: a look at a face and a heart).

Elizabeth attributes her ability to walk from her infirmary bed to this window to the intercession of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

Elizabeth enclosed a holy card of the newly-beatified Martyrs in her letter to her young friend Germaine.

View more floor plans in the print edition of Volume 2: Letters from Carmel

de Meester, C 2017, Rien moins que Dieu: sainte Elisabeth de la Trinité, Presses de la Renaissance, Paris.

Elizabeth of the Trinity, S 2003, The Complete Works of Elizabeth of the Trinity volume 2: Letters from Carmel, translated from the French by Nash, A, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: In the background, we see a detail of the renowned stained glass depiction of the martyrdom of the Carmelites of Compiègne, masterfully designed and executed by Sr. Margaret Agnes Rope, O.C.D. for the Carmel of Quidenham, England. In the foreground are two newsclips from the New Orleans Times-Democrat (seen on the left) and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (on the right) announcing celebrations in the Discalced Carmelite monasteries in New Orleans and St. Louis to mark the beatification of the Martyrs of Compiègne. Image credit: newspapers.com (Public domain), Discalced Carmelites

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/07/16/sabeth-ltr324-3/

#beatification #benediction #HighMass #infirmary #MartyrsOfCompiègne #prayer #sanctuary #StElizabethOfTheTrinity #StThereseOfLisieux #triduum

17 July: Saint Teresa of St. Augustine Lidoine and Companions

July 17
SAINT TERESA OF SAINT AUGUSTINE LIDOINE AND COMPANIONS
Virgins and Martyrs

Optional Memorial
In the houses in France: Memorial

As the French Revolution entered its worst days, sixteen Discalced Carmelites from the Monastery of the Incarnation in Compiègne offered their lives as a sacrifice to God, making reparation to him and imploring peace for the Church. On June 24th, 1794, they were arrested and thrown into prison. Their happiness and resignation were so evident that those around them were also encouraged to draw strength from God’s love. They were condemned to death for their fidelity to the Church and their religious life and for their devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Singing hymns, and having renewed their vows before the superior, Teresa of St. Augustine, they were put to death in Paris on July 17th, 1794. They were beatified by Pope St. Pius X on May 13, 1906. Their equipollent canonization was decreed on December 18, 2024.

From the Common of Martyrs or the Common of Virgins, except the following:

Office of Readings

HYMN

Let Carmel echo joyfully
The dying hymns that soared above
When Compiègne so gladly gave
Its greatest witness to God’s love.

These virgin-martyrs gave their lives.
For sin’s atonement, like their Lord;
They died to bring a troubled Church
The peace of Christ as love’s reward.

May we like them serve Holy Church
And build it up in unity,
Until at last in heav’n’s pure light
We gaze on God the Trinity.

Our Queen and Mother, Carmel’s joy,
Look down with love on us who sing
The praise of those who died for love
Of Jesus Christ, your Son, our King.

Bless God the Father, source of love,
Bless God the Word, his only Son,
Bless God the Spirit, Dove of peace,
One God, while endless ages run.

L.M.
Fr. James Quinn, S.J.

The Second Reading

Ch. 12, 1-3

From the Way of Perfection of St. Teresa of Jesus

The life of a good religious and a close friend of God is a long martyrdom

It all seems very hard work, this business of perfection — and so it is: we are waging war on ourselves! But as soon as we get down to it God becomes so active in our souls and showers so many mercies on them that whatever has got to be done in this life seems insignificant. And as we nuns do so much already, giving up our freedom for love of God and subjecting it to someone else, what excuse have we got for holding back when it comes to interior mortification?

That is where the secret lies of making all the rest so much more meritorious and perfect, not to mention doing it more easily and peacefully. The way to acquire it, as I have said, is to persevere bit by bit in not doing our own will or fancy, even in tiny things, till the body has been mastered by the spirit.

Let me repeat that it is all — or nearly all — a matter of getting rid of self-interest and our preoccupation with our own comfort. If you have started serving God seriously, the least you can offer Him is your life! If you have given Him your will, what are you afraid of? If you are a real religious, a real ‘pray-er,’ and want to enjoy God’s favors, you obviously can’t afford to shy away from wanting to die for Him, and undergo martyrdom. Don’t you realize, sisters that the life of a good religious — a person who wants to be one of God’s really close friends — is one long martyrdom? I say ‘long’ because in comparison with those whose heads have been chopped off in a trice we can call it long, but all our lives are short, very short in some cases. And we don’t even know whether our own won’t be so short that it will come to an end an hour, or even a second, after we have made up our mind to serve God fully. That could happen.

We have just got to take no account of anything that will come to an end, least of all life, for we can’t count on a single day. If we remember that every hour might be our last, is there a single one of us who will feel inclined to shirk?

Well, there is nothing you can be more certain of, believe me! So we must train ourselves to thwart our own wills in every way; then, if you try hard, as I have said, though you won’t get there all of a sudden, you will gradually arrive, without realizing it, at the peak of perfection.

Responsory

R/. Rejoice that you share the sufferings of Christ, * for when His glory is revealed you will be filled with joy.
V/. Blessed are you when you are persecuted for Christ’s sake, * for when His glory is revealed you will be filled with joy.

Morning Prayer

Hymn

Voice of the Bridegroom: now is winter passing,
Rain falls no longer, gardens yield their fragrance,
Spring blooms appearing, trees resound with birdsong —
Rise, my beloved.

Go out to meet him, virgins all exulting,
See he approaches, crowns you for your nuptials —
Rapture and gladness, when he leads you homeward
Sharing his kingdom.

Love for the Bridegroom filled your whole horizon,
Making you fearless in the face of danger;
Like him, your Master, life itself you offered,
Sacrificed for him.

Joyfully faithful to your holy calling,
Nothing could daunt you, or your lamps extinguish;
Shining and glowing you would bear them to him
Through cloud and tempest.

11.11.11.5
Sr. Margarita of Jesus, O.C.D.

Canticle of Zechariah

Ant. Prepare your lamps, you wise virgins, for behold, the Bridegroom is coming: go out and meet Him.

Prayer

Lord God,
you called Saint Teresa of St. Augustine and her companions
to go on in the strength of the Holy Spirit
from the heights of Carmel to receive a martyr’s crown.
May our love too be so steadfast
that it will bring us
to the everlasting vision of your glory.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Evening Prayer

Canticle of Mary

Ant. You virgins of the Lord, who have endured the great ordeal, come and rejoice with God forever.

Plaque in Picpus Cemetery marking the two common graves where the martyrs are buried | Wikimedia Commons

Catholic Church 1993, Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and the Order of Discalced Carmelites (Rev. and augm.), Institutum Carmelitanum, Rome.

Featured image: This stained glass window depicting the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne was designed by stained glass artist Sister Margaret of the Mother of God, O.C.D. (Margaret Rope). It is one of her most famous windows in the chapel of the Carmel of Quidenham, England. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

#LiturgyOfTheHours #MartyrsOfCompiègne #Memorial #optionalMemorial #StTeresaOfStAugustine

Throughout her stay in Carmel, Elizabeth lived with the very real threat of being expelled from France, along with her entire community. The liturgical calendar of Carmel, composed in 1905 (for the year 1906) mentions that, out of the 117 French Carmels, 38 actually were expelled.

On 1 July 1901, one month before Elizabeth entered Carmel, the Waldeck-Rousseau government promulgated the law concerning associations, which was aimed primarily at religious congregations. They had to ask for legal authorization before October 3, present their financial balance sheet, and an inventory of their goods.

For decades, the Catholic Church in France had been facing a headwind. The painful memory of the French Revolution and its martyrs a century earlier was still alive and, in the minds of young Christian idealists like Elizabeth, the idea of martyrdom could resurface from time to time, following the example of the Carmelites of Compiègne who were guillotined. She entered Carmel with this readiness for martyrdom, as she had declared to Marguerite Gollot when they were postulants “outside the walls”: “So, what happiness to go together to martyrdom!… I can hardly think of it… it’s too good!” (Letter 57).

Conrad De Meester, O.C.D.

Chapter 22, Partir en exil à l’étranger?

Note: The Mass and rite of beatification of Mother Teresa of St. Augustine and the Martyrs of Compiègne took place in Rome on Sunday, 27 May 1906. Elizabeth was present for the triduum in mid-October 1906 that the Carmel of Dijon celebrated in honor of the martyrs’ beatification.

de Meester, C 2017, Rien moins que Dieu: sainte Elisabeth de la Trinité, Presses de la Renaissance, Paris.

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/05/26/meester-exile/

#anniversary #beatification #CarmelOfDijon #history #inspiration #martyrdom #MartyrsOfCompiègne #StElizabethOfTheTrinity