#officeofthedead — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

Join us in this episode of our Marie du Jour series as we reflect on the profound sacrifice of the Blessed Martyrs of Compiègne, sixteen Carmelite nuns who were guillotined during the French Revolution. Hear the moving story of these nuns who sang the Salve Regina en route to the guillotine, expressing their tender, helpless abandon to Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Music credit: Sean Beeson

The journey to the scaffold had begun. Escorted by mounted guards and foot soldiers on that hot late afternoon in July, the tumbrels bearing the forty condemned bumped slowly over the paving stones of the Conciergerie courtyard before emerging from the gates of the Palace of Justice.

As the procession of guards, horses, foot soldiers, and jolting, springless tumbrels advanced along the uneven stone streets, accompanied by a highly eclectic escort of vociferous regulars, curious street rabble, and a few sympathizers, the Miserere arose from the tumbrels.

The combination of Vespers and Compline, mentioned by Madame Philippe [Sister Marie of the Incarnation, a survivor and biographer (1836)], plus the Office of the Dead attested to by [Gaspard Jean André Jauffret, Bishop of Metz and biographer (1803)], would have taken up the major portion of the journey to the scaffold.

Again Dostoevsky’s “holy memory” would have tugged at the heartstrings of some spectators as they recalled the last time they heard the Office of the Dead sung. Associated with the death of a mother, father, brother, or sister, it represented the old order, a time when the godless upheaval of the past five years would have been unimaginable.

Also sung en route to the guillotine were the words of tender, helpless abandon of the Salve Regina. Never for these Christian women consecrated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel had they seemed more appropriate.

Hail holy Queen! Mother of mercy!
Our life, our sweetness, and our hope!
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve.
To thee do we send up our sighs,
Mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious advocate,
Thine eyes of mercy towards us.
And after this, our exile,
Show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus!

William Bush

Chapter 10, The Wedding Feast of the Lamb

Note: Professor Bush refers to two biographies published in the early 19th century. In 1803, Bishop Jauffret published Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la religion à la fin du XVIIIe siècle (Memoirs on the history of religion at the end of the 18th century). Madame Philippe, whose name in religion was Sister Marie of the Incarnation, published her Histoire des religieuses carmelites de Compiègne conduites a l’échafaud le 17 juillet 1794 (History of the Carmelite nuns from Compiègne taken to the scaffold on July 17, 1794) in 1836.

Please join us in praying for the equipollent canonization of the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne.
PRAYER FOR THE CANONIZATION

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: 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/2024/05/23/mdj2024-ep24/

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