The tragic nuns of the gay composer’s opera Dialogues des Carmelites are on their way to becoming saints.
From the Rome bulletin Il messagero:
The sixteen Carmelite nuns of Compiègne, who during the Reign of Terror in France shortly after the French Revolution (1789) were guillotined on charges of being ‘enemies of the people,’ are becoming saints. Pope Francis has decided, through equivalent canonization, to extend to the universal Church the veneration of Blessed Teresa of Saint Augustine and 15 companions of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, beheaded in odium Fidei on July 17, 1794, in Paris. The story of these nuns had literally shocked France and the rest of Europe at the time due to the ferocity with which they were killed in the public square using the guillotine. In 1792, throughout the kingdom, religious practice was declared illegal, and they were arrested and sent to Paris to be condemned to death. During the trial, they were accused for trivial reasons, for example, ‘having claimed to expose the Blessed Sacrament under a canopy shaped like a royal mantle,’ and were judged as fanatics for ‘that affection for childish beliefs.’ On the day of execution, the courageous sisters sang sacred hymns along the entire route leading them to the place of execution. Chronicles also recount how they were dressed in their black and white cloaks, dismounting from the carts, kneeling and singing the Te Deum and the Veni Creator Spiritus, offering their sacrifice so that no more innocent people would have to die in France in that way. The powerful image of those condemned to death struck everyone and remained indelible, reproduced over the centuries by various painters and artists. Around the mid-20th century, the French writer Georges Bernanos wrote a successful drama later staged by Luca Ronconi (The Dialogues of the Carmelites), and composer Poulenc translated that terrible story, which speaks of freedom and great faith in God, into music. In 1960, a film was also released – The Dialogues of the Carmelites – directed by Philippe Agostini, starring Jeanne Moreau, Alida Valli, Pierre Brasseur, and Jean-Louis Barrault.
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