Canonizations and beatification

This article first appeared in Una Voce, the magazine of Una Voce France

The sixteen Carmelites of Compiègne, beheaded in the midst of the Terror on 17th July 1794 in Paris’ Place du Trône, now Place de la Nation, have been canonized. In October 2024, Pope Francis signed the document recognizing their equipollent, that is, ‘equivalent’, holiness. These Carmelites had been beatified in 1906 by Saint Pius X. Their martyrdom marked the end of the executions of this revolutionary period. They now rest in a mass grave in the Picpus cemetery, not far from the place of their execution.

The Carmel of Compiègne is no longer in this town in the Oise. The buildings on rue Saint-Lazare have been replaced by housing, but the chapel has been preserved. The Carmel has been transferred to new buildings about ten kilometres away, in the village of Jonquières.

In the crypt of the nuns’ chapel, in a large room and in a smaller one, are the mementos – clothes, rosaries, and objects that belonged to the martyrs – as well as some period paintings that have been gathered. This chapel and crypt are open every day from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

It was in the 1960s that the Carmel of Compiègne became famous again when a work by a German woman of letters [Gertrud von le Fort, later a signatory of an appeal to save the ancient liturgy] was translated: ‘The Last on the Scaffold’. At this time, Bernanos was writing his play Dialogues des Carmélites A film was also made under the same title by Rev Fr Bruckberger and Bernanos. Shortly afterwards, Francis Poulenc’s opera Dialogues des Carmélites, premiered at La Scala in Milan. Without a doubt, it was the most beautiful operatic creation of the twentieth century.

Persecution and damage

In Rouen, in the Saint-Sever church, a man was arrested on 2nd December 2024. He had broken into the tabernacle, which fortunately was empty, and damaged a crucifix. To those who apprehended him, he said that the church was the home of “Sheitan” (Satan in Arabic).

Anti-Christian violence has set a record for France. A report by the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination, published on 15th November 2024, indicates that 41% of the acts of anti-Christian hatred and violence recorded in Europe were perpetrated in France. Of the 2,444 acts recorded by this study, nearly 1,000 occurred in our country. These are acts of degradation, desecration, or insults.

The relics of the high altar of NotreDame de Paris

During the consecration of the new high altar of Notre-Dame, on 8th December 2024, Mgr Laurent Ulrich, Archbishop of Paris, placed in the place reserved for this purpose the relics of five recently canonized saints. They are:

• Mother Eugenie of Jesus (d. 1898), foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Assumption, canonized by Benedict XVI

• St Catherine Labouré (d. 1876), a Daughter of Charity of St Vincent de Paul who received apparitions of the Virgin in Rue du Bac (chapel of the Miraculous Medal)

• Sister Madeleine-Sophie Barat (d. 1865), foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, canonized by Pius XI in 1925

• Vladimir Ghika, Romanian Orthodox diplomat from a princely family who converted to Catholicism and was ordained a priest in 1923. He stayed in Romania throughout the Second World War and Communist takeover; he was arrested, tortured, and died in prison in 1954.

• St Charles de Foucauld (d. 1916), the last Frenchman to be canonized.