July 16 is the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Because it falls on a Sunday this year, we don’t celebrate it in the liturgy, but it’s worth commemorating even on our own. Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the patron saint of the Carmelite Order which traces its spiritual lineage back to the Old Testament prophet Elijah. It was on Mount Carmel that Elijah dramatically defended faith in the one true God of the Israelites against contamination by idolatrous cults that were favored by King Ahab and Queen Jezebel and their false prophets 3000 years ago (1 Kings 18:20-40). The Carmelite Order has produced some of the greatest saints and mystics in the history of the Church, including St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and St. Therese of Lisieux. Carmelite monks and nuns live out their lives in monasteries throughout the world. They spend their days in the cloister, living in community and dedicating their lives to pray and make sacrifices for you and me. Theirs is a hidden life. In the eyes of the world, it seems a wasted life. But we must never underestimate the power of the Carmelites.
In fact, a group of 16 Carmelite nuns from Compiegne, a town in northern France, are often credited with the end of the Reign of Terror in the aftermath of the French Revolution. These nuns refused to comply with the 1790 Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which mandated the suppression of their monastery, along with all the monasteries in France. By suppressing the monasteries, the revolutionaries were trying to force monks and nuns to give up their religious vows and lead secular lives. When the Carmelites of Compiegne refused to comply, Robespierre’s revolutionary government arrested them and sentenced them to death for treason. These 16 Carmelite nuns were sent to the guillotine on July 17, 1794. At the foot of the scaffold, the members of the community publicly renewed their religious vows. As the first nun ascended to the place of her death, the community began to chant the Veni, Creator Spiritus (“Come, Holy Spirit”), asking for the grace to be faithful to the end. The novice was put to death first, the head of the community went last. These 16 Carmelite martyrs of Compiegne were buried in a mass grave with 1300 other victims of the guillotine. Ten days after their deaths, the Great Terror came to an end. By their example the Carmelite nuns revealed the power of living in imitation of their patroness, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, whose Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) speaks of how the Lord God “casts down the mighty from their thrones and lifts up the lowly.”
If you are interested in learning more about the Martyrs of Compiegne, the French author Georges Bernanos wrote a famous play about the event of their deaths, which was also made into an opera, called Dialogues of the Carmelites.
posted 7/17/23
The Parish of St. Cecilia-St. Gabriel 