During the Revolutionary Tribunal, a little more than a travesty of justice, driven by deep hostility toward religious life, sealed the fate of sixteen Discalced Carmelite nuns from Compiègne. Led by their prioress, Saint Thérèse of St. Augustine (Marie-Madeleine-Claudine Lidoine), they were guillotined in Paris at the Place du Trône Renversé, at the height of the Reign of Terror.

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Prior to their execution, the Carmelites had been accused of holding counterrevolutionary gatherings, but in truth they were condemned for one reason alone: their refusal to abandon their religious life, their Rule, their superiors, and their devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Officials of the Committee of Public Safety had previously attempted to coerce them into surrendering their vocation. The sisters refused, keeping both their habit and their consecrated life.

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However, in August 1792, the government ordered all monasteries of women closed; the seizure and removal of the furnishings of the monastery of Compiègne occurred on 12 September, and the nuns were expelled from their monastery on 14 September. Though the nuns were forced to live scattered across Compiègne, yet they remained bound to one another through prayer and correspondence. Arrested in June 1794, they were taken to the Conciergerie in Paris, where they continued to witness to their faith with quiet peace and unshaken trust.

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Finally on the night of 17 July 1794, transported through the streets on two carts, the sisters astonished onlookers with their composure and serenity. Along the way, they sang psalms and “hymns of praise” together. Upon reaching the scaffold, their song gave way to the invocation of the Veni Creator. One by one, before mounting the steps, each sister renewed her religious vows in the hands of her prioress, who would be the last to die. Their calm courage and quiet dignity cast an unusual silence over the crowd, which was a striking contrast in an age grown accustomed to public executions. Remarkably, just ten days later, the Reign of Terror itself began to collapse.

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After their execution, their bodies were laid in a common grave at Picpus Cemetery. Beatified in 1906, they were canonised through equipollent canonisation in 2024 by Pope Francis.

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Their story was later immortalised in Francis Poulenc’s opera Dialogues des Carmélites, which was subsequently adapted into a French film of the same name in 1960. Through these works, their witness of faith and sacrifice has endured long after the French Revolution had passed.