Saint Teresa of Saint Augustine and 15 Companions

The Discalced Carmelite community of Compiègne was the fifty-third foundation of the Order in France. When the Revolution broke out, the Committee of Public Safety pressed the nuns to abandon religious life; they refused to lay aside the habit. Between June and September 1792, following the inspiration of their prioress, Sister Teresa of Saint Augustine, all of them offered themselves to God in sacrifice so that peace might return to Church and State, and that act of consecration became a daily offering. Driven from the monastery, dressed as laywomen and divided into four groups across Compiègne, they kept up their life of prayer by letter. Denounced, they were taken to Paris on 24 June 1794 and imprisoned in the Conciergerie. On 17 July, the day after they had kept the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in prison, the sixteen were condemned for their fidelity to religious life, for fanaticism, and for attachment to the constituted authority. They went to the guillotine singing.