Posted on 07/17/2008 1:03:25 PM PDT by nanetteclaret
The French Revolution reveals the titanic struggle between good and evil. During the terror, over 40,000 Frenchmen were executed just for holding fast to the Catholic Faith and objecting to the worst excesses of the Committee of Public Safety. The blood lost in the years of 1792-1794 staggers the imagination even in the retelling and the campaign against the Church was as diabolical as it was cruel.
Contemplative religious communities had been among the first targets of the fury of the French Revolution against the Catholic Church. Less than a year from May 1789 when the Revolution began with the meeting of the Estates-General, these communities had been required by law to disband. But many of them continued in being, in hiding. Among these were the community of the Carmelite nuns of Compiegne, in northeastern France not far from Paris - the fifty-third convent in France of the Carmelite sisters who followed the reform of St. Teresa of Avila, founded in 1641, noted throughout its history for fidelity and fervor. Their convent was raided in August 1790, all the property of the sisters was seized by the government, and they were forced to discard their habits and leave their house. They divided into four groups which found lodging in four different houses all near the same church in Compiegne, and for several years they were to a large extent able to continue their religious life in secret. But the intensified surveillance and searches of the “Great Terror” revealed their secret, and in June 1794 most of them were arrested and imprisoned.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicapologetics.info ...
I think this story deserves a special thread today.
sandyeggo, would you post that beautiful picture again?
Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne bump.
Oh, so these nuns deserved to die for being part of the “oppressive” class? I’m glad you agree with the proto-communist Jacobins.
I forgot to add “Catholic Caucus” to this thread but have asked the Religion Moderator to do it for me.
Thanks.
This is a Catholic Caucus. If you are not Catholic, leave the thread.
Not excusing anything- just want to spread the sypmathies a little broader. Some proportionality would be nice.
Are you Catholic?
At the end of the opera, the nuns go one by one up the scaffold and are dispatched in time to the music.
My wife and I were supernumeraries in a production of it here at Houston Grand Opera back in 1988. There was a guillotine just off stage, and the audience could see its sillouhette and the flash of the blade, and the music is timed so that the dropping of the blade hits at certain moments. the nuns sing Salve regina in unison, and the sounds of their voices get smaller as their numbers diminish until there is only one left (the lead character-Blanche). Blanche begins to sing Deo patri sit gloria, and her voice is cut short by the dropping of the blade. It gives me cold chills when I relive the moment. I was on stage as a Revolutionary (non-singing) Commissionaire and my wife was in the middle of the Mob. It was almost like I was really there during a moment of mass hysteria.
I wish there was a video of the production, as it was really clever and moving. However, if you only listened to it on CD, the ending is quite gripping.
I’m sorry ..
I did not know you intended this to be a caucus ...
If you wish to, feel free to have my last post deleted..
I’m printing a copy to take to St. Benedict Abbey later this afternoon. The brothers will be very interested to read it. Thanks so much. It’s heartbreaking.
The current problem in France cannot be blamed in any way on the purgation of the Hugenots. It is entirely the legacy of the French Revolution.
I notice protestant Great Britian has a Muslm problem. If only the Catholics could have lived in peace...............
I was just pointing out the difference...
And the very real current danger to the French...
Especially the Christians...
Catholic or Protestant..
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