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Paul Delaroche, Guillotine/ The Martyrs of Compiegne. Painted in the first half of the 19th century.
Private Collection (Auctioned in New York in 2017)
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MARTYRS WITHOUT PERSECUTORS?
The canonisation of the Carmelites of Compiègne in December represents a significant testing point in relations between modern French Catholics and the legacy of the French Revolution.
One of the few non-Catholic historians to comment so far is the Paul Chopelin, Maître de conférence at the University of Lyon III, president of the Société des études robespierristes and a specialist on the relationship between society and religion. For Chopelin, the canonisation represents "an affair at the heart of a long conflict between memory and history, which is not yet extinguished" x.com @ChopelinP, post of 18.12. 2024 ]
In Chopelin's view, after two centuries of hostility, the Church has made its peace with the Republican regime, but has yet to formulate a consistent attitude towards the legacy of the Revolutionary aggression. The canonisation throws this omission into relief: "The memory [of the Carmelites] raises a very French problem; that of the anti-religious violence by the Revolutionaries and their reception to day. It is a question that is largely taboo, both socially and in the histories. [Commenting to La Vie, 21.12.2024 ]
Is this a fair analysis? Here are a few preliminary thoughts.
THE MAKING OF A NEW CONSENSUS
The cause and the papacy
The first question to be answered is, why now? Despite the efforts of successive bishops of Beauvais, the canonisation has had to wait over a century since the beatification in 1906. The creation of a saint is a complex and potentially lengthy process, with a number of clearly defined stages, at which proceedings can stall (and indeed frequently do). The whole process often seems shrouded in secrecy to outsiders, even senior members of the Church. However, the final formal declaration rests with the Pope and his timing is crucial.
In the new century, Rome has, no doubt advisedly, shown itself cautious towards the "martyrs of the French Revolution". Despite the introduction of several causes, only two, relatively obscure individuals have been added to the ranks of the blessed by Benedict XVI - Marguerite Rutan, a Sister of Charity from Dax in 2011 and, in 2012, Pierre-Adrien Toulorge, a parish priest from Coutances.
In addition, a Lascallian Brother, Salomon Leclercq, one of the 191 victims of the September Massacres beatified in 1926, was raised to full sainthood by Pope Francis in 2016. This move, however, seems anomalous and certainly had little directly to do with French politics or history: the cause originated in Venezuela where St Salomon is credited with the miraculous cure of a five-year-old girl. Reaction in France was muted, perhaps because the new saint lacked a significant local lobby .
By comparison, the canonisation of the Carmelite martyrs is a much stronger statement. Not only are the Carmelites the centre of a considerable national cult, with a strong local focus; they are widely known in secular circles, particularly in the French-speaking world, through the work of Bernanos and the opera of Francis Polenc. The website of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints informs us that the exceptional procedure of "equipollent" canonisation has been allowed due to "numerous writings, continuity of fame of martyrdom and the wide extension of the cult" (see References).
François Lespes's film Les Bienheureuses features an interview with Mgr Guy Thomazeau, Bishop of Beauvais from 1994 to 2002, who was responsible for reintroducing the cause in modern times. When he first took up the see he had an audience with John-Paul II, who had read his Bernanos and encouraged him to initiate proceedings. For a while, in the bicentenary years, hopes ran high, but Mgr Thomazeau "received a cold reception" from the Congregation for the Cause of Saints. Only in 2020, in retirement, did he attempt to relaunch the cause. In November 2021, the Conference of French bishops formally adopted the resolution of the current Bishop, Mgr Jacques Benoit-Gonnin, to request the opening of a process of "equipollent canonisation". The postulator for the cause was Fr. Marco Chiesa, Postulator General for the General Curia of the Teresian Carmel in Rome.
French Catholics, especially in Compiègne, have been in a state of high anticipation since February 2022, when Pope Francis announced that there was nothing now opposing the canonisation. Even with this "little puff of white smoke", no definite date for the final pronouncement was forthcoming. On 4th December, France Catholique reported that the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints had finished its examination of the dossier and passed it to Pope Francis. It now only now remained for the Pope to authorise the promulgation of the decree announcing the canonisation, which he duly did on 18th December. The Catholic Herald tells us that the canonisation met with universal approval within the Church hierarchy, which is unusual: more typically members of the Church are divided, with some for and some against any canonisation in question. Catholic Herald, post of 19.12.2024.
Why the final change of heart?
It seems - perhaps problematically for the Church's approach to the Revolution - that the decision had very little to do with French history.
In a broadcast on CNews on 12th January the abbé Xavier Snoëk, parish priest for Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes in the 20th arrondissement of Paris and postulator for the cause of Madame Élisabeth, places the move in the context of the Pope's wider meditations on the relationship between Church and State. The declaration was made immediately following a visit to Corsica, where Francis had delivered a notable address on the need for a healthy "secularism"("laïcité") which separates Church and State, but allows both to exist freely. The canonisation then served to reiterate the fundamental Catholic values of respect for prayer and for the religious life. The abbé Snoëk observes that the Carmelites were martyred not simple because they were nuns, but because they persisted in a life of prayer within their community; it was this, above all, which distinguished them from other martyrs in other countries. [8mins:15]
CNews, "En quête d'esprit: Carmélites de Compiègne, martyres de la Révolution", broadcast 12/01/2025 [On DailyMotion]
The Pope's perspective is clearly on the universal church. We are reminded that the cult of the Carmelite martyrs is very popular in the Philippines and Latin America. According to CNews, 172 miracles or miraculous cures have occurred worldwide through their intercession since 1906.
On the day after the announcement, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints posted a short biography of the Carmelites which emphasised the nuns' refusal to abandon their convent and their Act of Consecration, made so that Church and State could find peace; the historical context is studiously vague; they offered their lives, so that "the evil that was raging in society might end".
Dicastery of the Cause of the Saints - The Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne - posted 19.12.2024
Early pronouncements by members of the French Church show a similar constructive spirit. Mgr Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, President of the Conference of French Bishops, commented somewhat cryptically on Vatican Radio, that he hoped that the canonisation "will contribute a little to the appeasement of our French historical memory" (See Readings).
The French Church
Formal celebrations of the canonisation in France have yet to unfold. The service of commemoration is scheduled for 8th May in Compiègne and in Paris, at Notre-Dame, for the 13th September, eve of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
As a potential point of comparison Paul Chopelin, offers a case study of local responses to the beatification of Marguerite Rutan, who was executed in Dax in Aquitaine on 9th April 1794 for spreading fanaticism among the Republican soldiers under her care.
See: Paul Chopelin, "Bienheureux martyrs, féroces bourreaux: Mises en scène de la violence révolutionnaire dans l’imagerie catholique contemporaine (xixe-xxie siècles)", La Révolution française et le monde d’aujourd’hui: Mythologies contemporaines (2014), p.177-90
The commemorative ceremony and mass, held in Dax on 19th June 2011, took place in the presence of the socialist mayor of the town, Gabriel Bellocq, and of the Prefect for the Landes, Evence Richard. Chopelin finds that the occasion was characterised by a "total depoliticisation of the episode" (p.187) The organisers wanted to present a positive vision of the modern Church turned towards the future, a message of hope "without expiatory content". The history of Revolutionary persecution was entirely concealed, in favour of a generalised celebration of the virtues of charity and humility. In the official images the stereotyped executioner of 19th-century iconography was replaced by the more neutral figure of a Republican soldier: "These images reflect the wishes of the organisers to avoid specific denunciation of the Revolution, and to bring to the fore the universal example of Marguerite Rutin."(p.188). Chopelin finds a similar trend in a children's book on the martyrs of Compiègne (Le Dernier chant des carmélites, by Dorothée Vallas, published in 1994, with illustrations by Brunor). Here the sans-culottes and bourreaux of tradition are again entirely replaced by undifferentiated soldiers (p.189)
Paul Chopelin is not at all happy with this new stance. He suggests that the very attempt to obscure the details of Revolutionary violence is just as effective as crude caricature in encouraging inaccurate comparisons modern totalitarian regimes. I am not sure how far this assessment is fair, but there is certainly some justification in the charge that the issue of Revolutionary violence has been evaded.
The signs are that celebrations at Compiègne will unfold in a similar eirenical spirit to those at Dax. This was certainly true for the commemorations which accompanied the bicentenary of the martyrdom in 1993-94, some of which are described by the late William Bush, Professor Emeritus of French at the University of Western Ontario, in the preface to his book To Quell the Terror (1999). One particularly feature of this initial phase was a renewed academic interest in the history of the nuns. The publishing house Cerf marked the anniversary by reissuing the classic 1954 reference work on the martyrdom, Le sang du Carmel, by Father Bruno de Jésus-Marie and, in addition, published Professor Bush's own critical edition of the Relation of Mme Philippe (Sister Marie of the Incarnation).
In May 1994, as hope for a bicentenary canonisation began to vanish, the Historical Society of Compiègne organised an international colloquium centring on aspects of Carmelite history. There was a range of participants, both noted Catholic scholars and members of the Society such as Jacques Brunet.
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Session of the 1994 Conference presided over by Mgr Hardy.
The speaker is Mgr Guy Gaucher, Discalced Carmelite Bishop of Meaux, an authority on St Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. |
Again there was much civic and community involvement, with exhibitions in the local library and at Compiègne's musée Vivenel. On 8th May, following the conference, plaques were inaugurated on the three houses where the Carmelites had taken refuge between 14th September 1792 to 22nd June 1794. The participants were joined by the Mayor of Compiegne, Philippe Marini and finished their pilgrimage at the adjacent church of Saint-Antoine. The municipality also showed its goodwill by adding a plaque in the rue du Four indicating that this was "formerly rue des Carmélites".
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Historical Society member François Callais in front of the nuns' house in the rue du Président Sorel.
The standing figures are Mgr Gaucher and Mayor Marini. | .
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See:
William Bush, "The Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne", Renascence (1995), Vol.48(1): 3-9.
____, To quell the Terror: the True Story of the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne, 1999 (Introduction)
Actes du colloque: Mort et renaissance du Carmel de France: commémoration des Carmélites, Martyres de Compiègne, 7-8 mai 1994. Bulletin de la Société historique de Compiègne, January 1995
AMBIGUOUS LEGACIES
"In odium fidei"
Despite the evident political goodwill, the historical legacy remains a difficult one.
In 1906, at the height of the stand-off between the Papacy and the Third Republic, the Carmelites were beatified as martyrs "in odium fidei", through hatred of the faith. Even the most cursory glance at the internet suggests that well-meaning Catholics (particularly American ones) do in fact regularly repeat the old stereotypes of Revolutionary aggression, with little reference to the nuanced findings of modern secular scholarship.
Inevitably, there will always be hardliners who make themselves heard.
A particularly prominent example was the Jesuit Jean-François Thomas, who featured in a CNews programme on the Carmelites in September. This on a widely-viewed (if Right-wing) TV channel. Father Thomas stated categorically that that the Revolution "wanted to uproot God" and to attack the figure of the King, not just as a political leader, but as "the lieutenant of Christ on Earth" (See Readings below).
Jean-François Thomas, s.j., speaking on CNews, 14.09.2024.
See Readings below.
The cause of the Carmelites serves to focus attention particularly on the Revolution's hostility to the monastic orders - the necessary obverse of the canonisation as a celebration of the religious life. At one level, this is no more than an obvious truth. The problem is to set parameters which can contribute to meaningful historical explanation. Thus Father Thomas presents a sweeping indictment of Enlightenment thought, which threatens to engulf whole swathes of Catholic reformers. In an essay by the American Carmelite Terrye Newkirk, published in 1995, the martyrs of Compiègne are situated a kind of cosmic confrontation between two world views. (See Readings) Whatever the validity of this approach in philosophic terms, it contributes ittle to an understanding of what happened in 1794, in terms of either government policy and the actions of individual Revolutionaries.
Another peculiar difficulty is posed by the idea that the Carmelites' martyrdom might have had providential repercussions in the world. At the centre of their story is the Act of Consecration whereby the nuns offered themselves up daily "as a holocaust to appease the anger of God and to bring divine peace to the Church and the State". This is easily read as a generalised call to work for peace, whether through practical endeavour or through the power of prayer.
However, according to well established pious legend, the nuns' sacrifice was miraculously responsible for the fall of Robespierre, just ten days after their death, and, with it, the end of the Reign of Terror. Professor Bush draws attention to account of the martyrdom included in the Memoirs of Jean-Joseph Jauffret, Bishop of Metz, which was published just a few years after the events, in 1803. Mgr Jauffret states that during their final year, the nuns formulated the specific aim of bringing about the release of souls from prisons and lessening the numbers of those guillotined. He adds that one of the community cried out at the foot of the scaffold that she was happy to die if her sacrifice could reduce the number of victims. In 1795 Mme Philippe talked with the English Benedictines, who were still imprisoned in Compiègne. They readily insisted that the expiatory sacrifice of the Carmelites had "put an end to the Great Terror, sparing their Benedictine community the same bloody fate". Six months later, in October 1795, whilst in Orléans, she met the winegrower Denys Blot who been imprisoned at the Conciergerie with the sisters. He too was convinced that their sacrifice had accelerated the end of the Terror and so saved his life. [See Bush, p.110-13. In 1983 Professor Bush spoke to one of the nuns at Stanbrook Abbey who informed him without hesitation, "We're here because of them"]
At the level of divine economy, this scenario doubtless has much to commend it, but can hardly pass as historical explanation.
Cultural reflections
The figure of Georges Bernanos looms large in perceptions of the Carmelite martyrs. (He is an important influence among French Catholics - on his visit to the Vatican in 2018 Macron chose to present the Pope with a copy of Bernanos's Journal d'un curé de campagne.)
For the bicentenary the Théâtre Impérial in Compiègne hosted performances of the Dialogues des Carmélites (which was originally adapted as a theatrical production) and, this December past, of a concert based on Poulenc's opera. In addition, in the last year or so there have been several large-scale productions of the opera itself worldwide, including the lavish current staging at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris (above). The work, which premiered at La Scala in January 1957, is much performed and has always enjoyed huge critical acclaim. It climaxes in a particularly memorable and emotional final scene where the nuns sing the Salve Regina as they mount the scaffold one by one.
There are also several film versions, the most well-thought of of which is a TV adaptation of 1984 produced by Pierre Cardinal and starring Bernanos's granddaughter Anne Caudry.
There has lately been considerable effort to emphasise that Bernarnos's Dialogues, powerfully emotive as they are, do not represent history. (See Readings below)
TOWARDS A NEW HISTORICAL SYNTHESIS?
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Pages from Olivier Malcurat, Les Carmélites de Compiègne, martyres de la révolution. Illustrated by Fabrizio Russo.
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The immediate run up to the canonisation has not been marked by new academic studies, perhaps because the preliminary source analysis is now substantially complete, thanks largely to the work of the late Professor Bush. The new publications have been works of popularisation. The two main authors to appear in recent French language Catholic newspapers and TV programmes are Marie Martin, whose account is aimed primarily at young people, and Olivier Malcurat, creator of a bande-dessiné (now, as Paul Chopelin has observed, a favourite Catholic genre).
I do not have access to either of these works, so it is difficult to comment. However, both authors appear in François Lespes's film, Les Bienheureuses, produced for KTO TV in 2023. We can see a certain new consensus formed from this work. Paul Chopelin comments:
"A documentary made for the 230th anniversary of the execution of the Carmelites illustrates well the confusion that has arisen over the years between history and the memory of Revolutionary religious persecution, a persecution the issues of which remain poorly understood." Comment
posted on X, 18.12.2024
This seems a little hard, as the film is a well-considered and sensitive production, and is at least as much about the effort behind the canonisation process as it is a factual history.
Lespie tries hard to avoid dogmatism by using a series of talking heads rather than a single authoritative commentary. If you listen carefully, the various experts don't always agree precisely.
The chief professional historian is Patrice Gueniffey, with additional contributions by Jean-Christian Petitfils. Patrice Gueniffey has written extensively on the period, including an analysis of the Terror. . On the other hand, the language is advisedly restrained and, given the high level of generality, the presentation is fair.
. The main difficulty with the film, I think, is the close focus on the nuns, to the exclusion of other figures, particularly those local Revolutionaries who emerge from Jacques Brunet's narrative, as the key players in events. Perhaps, the closer one draws to events, the less easy it becomes to maintain a clear moral demarcation?
[To be continued.]
Readings
Messages of peace
"So that Peace May be Restored to the Church and State" We do not recall this event for purposes of revenge or for political reasons. We, the baptized, seek to receive a message and contemplate an example. By remembering the victims from a bloody page of our country's history, we would like to contribute today to the renewal of our commitment to real solidarity with the countless victims of our times, and to better understand how to overcome the "structures of sin" (John Paul II) that obstruct the works of development, justice and peace....
.....The message of the sixteen Carmelites of Compiegne is still relevant today. To give one's life so that peace may be restored to the church and to the state is to believe that in Jesus Christ, who died and rose for us, Love will always be victorious.
Pastoral Letter of His Excellency Adolphe-Marie Hardy, Bishop of Beauvais, Noyon and Senlis. On the Occasion of the Bicentenary of the Martyrdom of the Sixteen Blessed Carmelites of Compiegne, July 17, 1794. Translated as the preface to
Terrye Newkirk, OCDS, The mantle of Elijah (1995)
The Carmelites of Compiègne are beautiful examples of Christian liberty lived to the end in varying historical circumstances. For my part, I hope that this canonisation will contribute a little to the appeasement of our French historical memory, which must acknowledge the violence that this part of our history, but through which examples of faith, hope and charity have been given, which are also part of the beauty of French history.
Words of Mgr Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, President of the Conference of French Bishops following the announcement of the beatification. (
Vatican Radio / Vatican News)
The reconciliation of Catholics with the Republic explains the fact that the dead have become an embarrassment for everyone...For the episcopal authorities, the desire to turn the page often triumphed, preventing anyone from looking at this open wound.
Views of the Revolution
Since the 19th century, repeated images of massacres by the sabre and scaffolds surrounded by soldiers and gross brutes, have impregnated the Catholic imagination, favouring, at this beginning of the 21st century, comparisons between the Revolution and the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. Notably they encourage the positive reception, among Catholics, of the thesis of a Vendéan genocide.
Paul Chopelin, "Bienheureux martyrs, féroces bourreaux...., La Révolution française et le monde d’aujourd’hui: Mythologies contemporaines (2014), p.177-90, p.189.
On Wednesday, Pope Francis approved the universal veneration of sixteen Discalced Carmelite martyrs who were killed on July 17, 1794, at the height of the French Revolution’s bloody persecution of the Catholic Church. The limited (mainly Catholic) press coverage so far of this decree focused on the wide fame of the Carmelite sisters (largely due to an opera written about them); and the use of equipollent canonization with their cause—a rare exercise by popes to recognize the Catholic faithful’s long time veneration of holy people.
These noteworthy details of the Vatican’s announcement overshadowed a fundamental detail of their martyrdom—that they went to the guillotine for the “crime” of “fanaticism” for the Catholic Faith....
St. Teresa of St. Augustine and her Carmelite companions are an example to all Catholics who want to tenaciously cling to the faith in the midst of the ongoing rampage of the mutant ideological strains that originate from the French Revolution. May they pray for us now; and if God’s Providence leads us to the scaffold, may they pray for us and guide us at the hour of our deaths.
The French Revolution reveals the titanic struggle between good and evil. During the terror, over 40,000 Frenchmen were executed just for holding fast to the Catholic Faith and objecting to the worst excesses of the Committee of Public Safety. The blood lost in the years of 1792-1794 staggers the imagination even in the retelling and the campaign against the Church was as diabolical as it was cruel.
"The sixteen Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne", Entry in Catholic Apologetics Information ("the most Comprehensive Catholic Apologetics website on the net"!)
[4:45] Why did the the Revolution attack these women? As you know, the French Revolution wasn't any old revolution. It wasn't a revolt for a few changes, a few reforms. It was a revolution which wanted to uproot God and which attacked notably the figure of the King, who was not just a political leader, but the lieutenant of Christ on the Earth. And this goes equally for a movement which was widespread in Europe in this era. We should not forget for example, that the Emperor Joseph II, before the French Revolution, had prohibited the contemplative orders in his empire and closed them down. This was the view of the time. The contemplative orders were seen as contrary to individual liberty, so it was natural that the Revolutionaries, who wanted to extirpate fanaticism, as they called it, should attack first of all the contemplatives, the foundation of the Church in the Kingdom of France. This began, very concretely, in 1790. The religious orders were dissolved by the revolutionaries and their vows declared null. Then in 1792 came the decree expelling monks and nuns from their houses .
[6:13] Were the nuns really agents of counter revolution? They were clearly seen as such by the new powers that be. I think that the Revolutionaries were not totally wrong, but not in the way they understood. The nuns were Counter-Revolutionaries in that they believed, justly, that France was founded on God, that their life had purpose, and that the Kingdom and people of France could only live with the help of the prayers of the contemplatives. They were counter-revolutonaries....in the spiritual sense of the term, but not in the political.
[14:47] On 27th July 1794 the terror is ended by a Parliamentary coup. Had the prayer of the Carmelites been answered? In effect, the marriage of these Carmelites with Our Lord brought immediate fruition. This was the interpretation of all those who had faith, whether free or revolutionary, who saw it as a sign. Such a sacrifice could not fail to bear fruit. The [ceremonial marriage of the nuns of Compiegne to Christ] was not merely symbolic - they signed with their blood this act of renunciation and consecration.
Father Jean-François Thomas, s.j., speaking on CNews, 14.09.2024 [On Daily Motion]
Does the death of the Carmelites have a message for modern faith?
There is an incredible poignancy in the message of the martyrdom of these Blessed ones. Not only did they imitate Christ by accomplishing the will of the Father but they achieved works by the gift of their life and, more concretely, by their prayer for the return of peace, at the death of Robespierre.
The filmmaker, François Lespes interviewed in France Catholique
Is it only coincidence that Song at the Scaffold, Gertrud von Le Fort's novella about the Martyrs of Compiegne, ws first published in Germany in 1931 as Adolph Hitler's National Socialist party was gaining phenomenal power? ...
Reformers, reactionaries, or revolutionists - any who attempt to separate spirit from matter, faith from works, words from their meanings - are right to fear [religious contemplatives]. Robespierre's avowed purpose was to implement concretely the romantic philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in France's public life; Hitler's diabolical vision apparently derived in part for Friedrich Nietzsche's doctrine of the "superman", together with a literal reading of the theosophical and other occult texts. Such theories, promulgated without regard for objective truth, cannot withstand the light either of reason or of faith. Contemplatives bring both to bear.
Terrye Newkirk, OCDS, The mantle of Elijah: the martyrs of Compiègne as prophets of the modern age (1995)
The ambiguities of art
Can this history touch the heart of an atheist or agnostic?
Of course! In 2022 Poulenc's opera was staged in the church of Saint-Louis-en-l’Île in Paris by the company of the singer Carole Chabry. The majority of unbelieving artists were overwhelmed. Much can be conveyed by art.
François Lespes interviewed in France Catholique
[Poulenc’s opera] was recognized immediately as one of the greatest of the twentieth century and opened to rave reviews both in Italy and France. At the heart of the opera is the harrowing approach of death for the nuns in the Carmelite cloister of Compiègne and the way that each of them makes her own spiritual journey to martyrdom, despite the chances to surrender her faith and so live. The opera ends, like the lives of the nuns, upon the scaffold in Paris, with the nuns singing a hymn. One by one their voices are silenced, but the power of their message sings on into eternity....
For apologists today, the Carmelite martyrs—as with all martyrs for the faith—remind us that their example is not confined to a bygone age of suffering and war in a Europe gone mad with the Enlightenment. St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) wrote with veneration of the Compiègne Carmelites. Like the Benedictine nuns before her, the future martyr grasped the significance of their act of spiritual consecration and their willingness to be martyrs for the faith that evil was trying to expunge. Rather than being forgotten, the nuns inspired Catholics and artists over the next two centuries as Christians died at the hand of the Nazis, Communists in Spain and the Soviet Empire, and extremists the world over. As François Poulenc’s opera brings to riveting operatic life, the Carmelites of Compiègne demonstrate to all Christians that even as we should be willing to follow Christ in every way that we live, it is just as important to follow Christ in how we die.
We must acknowledge that, as in many other cases, pious legend has extensively replaced historical truth; the hagiography of the 19th century, the foundation for the literature of the 20th century, has long obscured authentic collective biography. During a debate on Radio-Notre-Dame, at the time of the centenary in 1989, I had some difficulty in convincing members of the Comédie-Française in a production of Bernanos's play, that Blanche de Force was a fictional person and that the Dialogues put in the mouths of the Carmelites were pure literary invention.
Although Rome beatified the sixteen Carmelites of Compiègne as martyrs in 1906, the fact that they are remembered today is largely due to a novella by the German Catholic writer, Baroness Gertrud von Le Fort, that features a completely fictional heroine. Published in German in 1931 as The Last One at the Scaffold, it appeared in English as Song at the Scaffold.
Gertrud von Le Fort wrote her novella to exorcise her own terror at the rise of Hitler, projecting her own fears and misgivings onto an imaginary French novice-heroine, Blanche de la Force, the daughter of a Marquis, who bears a French version of her own noble name. Blanche joins the historical Compiègne Carmel just as the French Revolution is tightening its noose around the Church. Terrified, she struggles, then flees before returning to die with the community as "the last one at the scaffold."
The essential and, one might say, profoundly mystical link joining Poulenc's opera to the German novella, however, was to be provided by Georges Bernanos' Dialogues des Carmélites. This text, slightly abridged, provided Poulenc with an incomparable libretto.
Less than a year before Bernanos' death on July 5, 1948, the fatally ill author signed a contract with a young Dominican priest, Father Raymond Brückberger, to furnish the dialogues for Brückberger's film adaptation of The Last One at the Scaffold, authorized by Gertrud von Le Fort. Knowing that he was dying, Bernanos fused the absolute certainty of his own approaching demise with the inevitability of the Carmelites' destruction, giving his dialogues a rare intensity. Rejected as "too literary" for Brückberger's film, Bernanos' dialogues were published posthumously. Francis Poulenc fortuitously fell upon a copy of Bernanos' dialogues at the very moment he was searching for a religious subject for a new opera that he had been commissioned to write for La Scala.
The captivating story of Blanche de la Force must be set aside, however, if we are seeking historical facts. Though she never existed in history, four characters in the fictional story did‹the foremost being the remarkable Prioress, Madame Lidoine, who prepared the nuns for their martyrdom with a maternal solicitude. Both the young novice, Sister Constance, and the first Prioress, Madame de Croissy, also existed. Both moreover died on the guillotine.
As for the dominant and highly fictionalized character of Marie of the Incarnation, she too indeed existed, but hardly as a spiritually mature Sub-Prioress longing for martyrdom. Historically she was far more akin to the young and fearful Blanche de la Force. As in the opera, she was in Paris on business when her community was arrested in Compiègne, but she by no means lingered in hopes of joining her sisters on the guillotine. Rather, she immediately fled, vainly hoping, as first cousin of the Duke of Orleans, to join members of his family in Switzerland. Unable to cross the Swiss border, she survived alone and frightened in post-Terror France before returning to Compiègne in the latter half of 1795. Amassing a unique collection of documents left by the martyred community, she would wait almost forty years before setting down her memories of her martyred sisters, then die in 1836 as a paying guest at the Carmel of Sens.
Marie of the Incarnation was not, therefore, at all behind the historical "Act of Consecration" which, historically, came solely from Madame Lidoine. As remarkable in history as she is in the opera, she is nonetheless, for dramatic interest, shown opposing Marie of the Incarnation's veritable one-woman campaign for a community "vow of martyrdom."
Historically, it was Sister Constance who refused to flee the community and accompany her brother home. In spite of her horror of the guillotine, she rose magnificently to the occasion when Madame Lidoine called her, as the youngest, to be the first to mount the fatal scaffold steps. As a good Carmelite, she knelt to receive the Prioress' blessing, then movingly asked, "Permission to die, Mother?" The Prioress' gentle blessing, "Go, my daughter!" was to be repeated fourteen times, as each nun in turn knelt at her feet to ask permission and kiss the miniscule terracotta statuette of the Virgin and Child sequestered in the Prioress' palm.
According to eyewitness accounts Sister Constance, transfixed from that moment of blessing, spontaneously started singing. As she started up the steep steps she gave voice to the words of the psalm praising God for confirming his mercy upon them. Still singing up on the scaffold, we are told that she firmly approached the guillotine's vertical balance-plank unassisted, "like a queen going to receive a diadem." Strapped to the upright plank, she was then swung down and the plank adjusted for the fall of the blade, even as the other nuns took up her chant: "His mercy is confirmed on us!"
For opera-goers, however, the biggest surprise, apart from Sister Marie of the Incarnation's patent lack of courage, is that of learning that one of the most intense scenes in the opera, Madame de Croissy's unforgettable death-bed scene, is purely fictional. Accepting Gertrud von Le Fort's idea that, by grace, the weak may prove stronger than the strong, Bernanos there shows the strong and mature Madame de Croissy assuming Blanche de la Force's own anguished death, thus allowing the weak young novice to die with fortitude.
Bernanos pushed that element of mystic exchange further still in intimating that Blanche's martyr's death is also the death Marie of the Incarnation would have died had she not been forbidden to join her sisters at the guillotine. Thus is the very worthy, proud daughter of royal blood humbled by her helplessness before circumstances, whereas the unworthy, fearful Blanche de la Force whose weakness Marie of the Incarnation had scorned, dies nobly.
The final surprise is that the very last words spoken in the final exchanges between Marie of the Incarnation and the Chaplain were the last words the dying Bernanos ever penned, and, we learn from his manuscripts, were certainly addressed to himself. In them the Chaplain admonished Mother Marie not to think of her sisters on the scaffold searching in vain for her arrival. He urged her to fix her gaze on "another gaze," that is, upon the eyes of Christ which the dying author himself was struggling to focus with his own gaze.
Bernanos' powerful spiritual and literary impact on the script completely beguiled Poulenc on his initial reading of the work and the composer's brilliant musical transmission of that script has, since its first production in 1957, continued to assure the success of this unusual opera world-wide. Today Poulenc's music and Bernanos' elegance of language seems to prove more attractive in a world hungry for meaning.
[7:00] Bernanos wrote his Dialogues in 1947-48. At this time he was in exile in Tunisia - the term is exact because he could not tolerate the climate of France in the immediate aftermath of the War. He saw in it a materialist consumer society which had abandoned any kind of inner life. His work expresses both his revolt and his own profound personal mediation. The writings of the last two years of his life show that he sensed his coming death. There is a clear parallel between the Dialogues and the text of his private journals. He identified personally with the character of Blanche de la Force, the Carmelite prioress, because he thought that the France of his own time, like that of the Revolution, had rejected its honour, based on the values of the Gospels. Bernanos wrote the Dialogues in preparation for his own death. This was not morbid; it was an advance towards the light. It can be said that the death of Bernarnos, like that of the martyrs, was an act of absolute completion.
Yves Bernados, the grandson of Bernados, speaking in François Lespes film Les Bienheureuses.
More than any other religious victims of the September Massacres, or of the repression of 1793-94, the nuns of Compiègne have come to symbolise a period marked by a dramatic divorce between the Revolution and Catholicism. This singular prominence is the result of a long an effective construct, from the Restoration onwards, of their status as martyrs of the Christian faith and innocent victims of the Revolution, culminating in their beatification at the height of the conflict between the Papacy and the Third Republic. It is also the result of the formidable resonance of the work of Gerrud von Lefort (1931) G. Bernanos (1949) and F. Poulenc (1957)....
This spiritual and aesthetic transfiguration, for the service of religion and political counter-revolution is evidently not innocent. For this reason we should return to the real facts and personalities, in order to decrypt myth and legend for the benefit of history...
Jacques Bernet, Les Carmélites de Compiègne, victimes de la Révolution légende et histoire", Annales historiques Compiégnoises, No. 113-114, 2009.
The persecution suffered by the Carmelites of Compiègne is one piece of evidence, but the lesson to be learned - the malignity of the Revolution - needs to be nuanced. In general, nuns fell victim to repression less often than priests or monks. In the majority of cases they continued to live under their rule, more or less protected by the municipalities, sometimes Revolutionaries who found it in their interests to have schoolteachers or nurses.
The Carmelites of Compiègne, like the majority of nuns, were Counter-Revolutionaries. They were driven from their convent in 1792. Two years later, they were caught up in the interplay of politics between the Revolutionary factions competing for power. They were denounced at that moment. Once caught up in the judicial machine, their fate was sealed.
Jean-Clément Martin, La Terreur: vérités et légendes (2017), p.189-90.
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