Pope Francis has officially made the Martyrs of Compiègne saints. It was a rare moment on 18 December, not only because the sixteen Sisters who were martyred have not had a miracle officially attributed to them, but also because no one in the Church disagreed with the decision to canonise them.
In order to understand why the decision – which typically tends to divide members of the Church, with some for and some against any canonisation in question – met with what was basically universal applause, it’s important to know the story of the Carmelite Sisters guillotined in Paris on 17 July 1794 during the blood-soaked and chaotic phase of the French Revolution known as the Reign of Terror.
Ten days after the execution of the martyrs, the principal driver of the Terror, Maximilien Robespierre, went to the guillotine himself, thereby ending the horror.
At least 35,000 people perished in the Reign of Terror, usually in front of cheering crowds.
The religious sisters were convicted of hostility to the French Revolution, sympathies to the monarchy, and for continuing in consecrated life, which had been made illegal by the revolutionary government.
The Carmelites were singing as they climbed the scaffold to their death. The people watching were unusually silent. Many historians think the execution of the religious sisters shocked – and maybe shamed – the people of the French capital to such a degree that it contributed to the end of the Terror soon after.
Pope St. Pius X beatified the religious Sisters in 1906, but they haven’t received the recognition of a miracle attributed to their intercession, which is usually required for sainthood according to the Church’s official canonisation process.
Read the rest: https://catholicherald.co.uk/french-revolutions-singing-martyrs-of-compiegne-canonised-despite-lack-of-miracle/
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