Saints the Discalced Carmelites of Compiègne

Pope Francis, Dec. 18: Discalced Carmelite nuns of Compiègne, guillotined in 1794 in Paris, are saints

Vatican News

Blessed Teresa of St. Augustine and 15 companions of the order of Discalced Carmelites of Compiègne, who were killed in odium fidei during the French Revolution, are saints. This was established by Pope Francis during a Dec. 18 audience with Cardinal Prefect Marcello Semeraro, in which he also authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate decrees regarding the beatifications of two martyrs: one of communism, Archbishop Eduardo Profittlich, and one of Nazism, priest Elia Comini. Servants of God Áron Márton, bishop, Joseph Mary Leo, priest, and Peter Goursat, French layman, also became venerable.

St. Teresa of St. Augustine and the 15 Discalced Carmelite Companions of Compiègne

Approving the favorable votes of the ordinary session of the cardinals and bishops, members of the Dicastery, the Pope therefore decided to extend to the universal Church the cult of Blessed Teresa of St. Augustine (born: Mary Magdalene Claudia Lidoine) and her 15 Discalced Carmelite companions of Compiègne, who suffered martyrdom on July 17, 1794 in Paris, France, by directly inscribing them in the catalog of saints. In their case, the procedure of equipollent canonization was followed, a practice initiated by Benedict XIV by which the pope extends to the whole Church by means of an obligatory decree the cult of a servant of God not yet canonized.

The Community of Compiègne was the fifty-third foundation of the order in France, which occurred after the arrival in the country of Blessed Ana de Jesus, a disciple of St. Teresa of Avila. At the outbreak of the Revolution, members of the local Public Health Committee went to the convent to induce the nuns to abandon religious life. They refused and when-between June and September 1792-incidents of violence increased, following the inspiration of the prioress, Sister Teresa of St. Augustine, they all offered themselves to the Lord as a sacrifice so that the Church and the State would find peace.