carmelites

Each year, I run searches for the Carmelite martyrs of Compiegne to see where I can find them in the historical record.1 This year’s finding was an issue of the Journal de Paris.2 The Journal de Paris was a long-running daily newspaper in Paris. During the French Revolution, its issues typically began with the section Convention Nationale, with summaries of the sessions (seances) from the day before. There were also occasional sections for Musique, Variete, Commune de Paris, and Municipalite de Paris.

The 16 Carmelites martyrs of Compiegne have become famous not only for their martyrdom, but for singing while at the scaffold. William Bush, in his book To Quell the Terror: The Mystery of the Vocation of the Sixteen Carmelites of Compiègne Guillotined July 17, 1794, draws from eyewitness accounts and archival material to describe what exactly the sisters sang. The first song to note is a parody of La Marseillaise, written by one of the sisters, and sung when the sisters were in prison awaiting trial.