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Madam Lidoine
Marie-Madeleine-Claudine Lidoine (Thérèse of St. Augustine) led the Carmelites of Compiègne into martyrdom in 1792. The revolutionaries demanded that the devout nuns swear the Civil Constitution, abandon convent life, and renounce their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. But the sisters did not break their vows. They were sentenced to death. On the Place du Trône Renversé in Paris, the nuns found their deliverance on July 17, 1794. They were guillotined, each one asking the prioress for permission to die. In the end, Madame Lidoine ascended the scaffold herself. More than two centuries later, Pope Francis declared Thérèse of St. Augustine and her companions saints.
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1752 - 1794
- September 22, 1752 · Marie-Madeleine-Claudine Lidoine is born in Paris.
- 1773 · Enters the Carmel of Compiègne. She will later become the prioress of the convent.
- September 1792 · The community of Carmelites is dissolved by the revolutionaries. The nuns are expelled and forced to wear civilian clothes. Still, they meet in secret and continue their monastic life.
- July 17, 1794 · Execution of the sixteen martyrs of Compiègne in Paris.
- May 27, 1906 · Beatification of the Carmelites by Pope Pius X.
- December 18, 2024 · Pope Francis canonizes Madame Lidoine and her fifteen sisters.
Quotes
By that I mean your attachment to those childish beliefs and your foolish religious practices.
Scellier, judge of the Revolutionary Tribunal, explaining to an accused nun what he meant by the word fanaticism
.
Praise the Lord, all nations, praise him, all peoples. For his loving kindness has been bestowed upon us, and the truth of the Lord endures for eternity.
Laudate Dominum omnes gentes. The hymn the nuns sang on their way to the scaffold.
The Holy Father has decided to extend to the universal Church the cult of Blessed Thérèse of St. Augustine and her fifteen companions, inscribing them in the Book of Saints.
Pope Francis, December 18, 2024
Le Moniteur
Quintidi, 5 Thermidor, l'an 2 de la République Française, une et indivivisible
(July 23, 1794)
Paris, 17 July 1794
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