french rev Carms

July 17, 1794

​
​Ages youngest to oldest
29, 30, 34, 42, 42, 46, 49, 51
52, 52, 52, 53, 54, 58, 78, 78

One of the nuns executed had five biological sisters in religious life.

Choir Nuns
Mother Teresa of St. Augustine, prioress, 42
Madeleine-Claudine Ledoine
Born Paris 1752
Professed 1775

• Only child of an employee of the Paris Observatory, had educational advantages and cultivated artistic and poetic gifts, some of her work has been preserved, her dowry to enter the convent was paid by Marie Antoinette

 
Mother St. Louis, sub-prioress, 42
Marie-Anne Brideau
Born Belfort 1752
Professed 1771

• Father a professional soldier probably stationed at Compiègne (place of execution) at some point in his career

 
Mother Henriette of Jesus, ex-prioress for two terms, novice mistress
Marie-Françoise Gabrielle de Croissy
Born Paris 1745
Professed 1764

• Great-niece of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, King Louis XIV's minister, having spent half her life as a Carmelite at the time of her execution, coming to Compiègne when she was just 16. She was refused entrance at first by the prioress at the time because of her youth. She was sent home for another year and finally made her profession in 1764.  According to Mother Teresa, Henriette “won all hearts by her natural gentleness and affection, as might a real mother”, and like Mother Teresa, Henriette wrote verses and was a talented artist; some of her work has been preserved.

 
Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified
Marie-Anne Piedcourt
Born 1715
Professed 1737

• While mounting the scaffold she said, “I forgive you as heartily as I wish God to forgive me.”

 
Sister Charlotte of the Resurrection, ex-sub-prioress and sacristan
Anne-Marie-Madeleine Thouret
Born Mouy 1715
Professed 1740

• The oldest of the martyrs and possessing a very lively mind, naturally inclined toward gaiety. Her father died early in her life. She nursed other sickly nuns despite the toll it took on her own body and was miraculously healed after toxic exposure to lead paint left her seriously cognitively impaired for two years.

 
Sister Euphrasia of the Immaculate Conception
Marie-Claude Cyprienne
Born Bourth 1736
Professed 1757

• Entered in 1756 at age 20, witty, humorous, and “possessed an undeniable exterior charm”, she wrote priests and others in the religious life for spiritual direction and left a voluminous correspondence during her 30 years in the community, letters revealing a strong personality plagued by restlessness, something potentially problematic in a cloistered community.

 
Sister Teresa of the Sacred Heart of Mary
Marie-Antoniette Hanisset
Born Rheims 1740
Professed 1764

• Daughter of a saddle maker, Carmel’s interior turn sister, receiving goods for the community from the outside world

 
Sister Julie Louise of Jesus, widow
Rose-Chrétien de la Neuville
Born Loreau 1741
Professed 1777

• Married a cousin despite her calling to the religious life, but after he died prematurely, received help from a cleric associated with her family and recovered her mental health with a new sense of calling, writing five stanzas of verse for her sisters as they prepared for death  

​Sister Teresa of St. Ignatius
Marie-Gabrielle Trézel
Born Compiègne 1743
Professed 1771

• Called a mystic with a sense of the absolute

 
Sister Mary-Henrietta of Providence
Anne Petras
Born Cajarc 1760
Professed 1786

• Before joining, she was a member of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers, where her natural beauty in a congregation that constantly exposed her to the outside world she thought would be harmful, thus, she joined the Carmelites; five of her sisters were also nuns in the Nevers order, and two of her brothers were priests.

 
Sister Constance of St. Denis, novice
Marie-Geneviève Meunier
Born Saint-Denis 1765

• Sister Constance was the youngest member of the community. She was barred from making her final vows as a nun due to the revolutionary laws outlawing it, so she professed them to Mother Teresa before going to her death. When it became obvious to her family that she would not be able to legally profess her vows, they sent her brother to force her to return home. She refused, so he brought in the police, but they were convinced that she was in Compiègne by her own choice and did not force her to leave with her brother. She died age 29.

 
Lay Sisters
Sister St. Martha
Marie Dufour
Born Beaune, 1742
Entered 1772

Sister Mary of the Holy Spirit
Angélique Roussel
Born Fresnes 1742
Professed 1769

​Sister St. Francis Xavier
Julie Vérolot
Born Laignes, 1764
Professed 1789
  
Externs
Catherine Soiron, born 1742
Thérèse Soiron, born 1748