Saint Days from September 1 to 3

In the U.S., we are celebrating Labor Day Week-End today through Monday.  In addition to that, there are memorials of several saints of interest to Carmelites (one way or another) on these three days.

Today is the new feast day of St. Teresa Margaret Redi in the Carmelite calendar.  There is a website devoted to her, and there is also information about her and this feast day at a few other websites here, here, and here.  Her feast day used to be in March.  An English translation of the proper for her feast day is provided at The Inn at the End of the World.  Born in Tuscany, she died in 1770 at the age of 23.  Her apostolate was one of silent love, suffering and prayer.

September 2 and 3 are the memorials of the 191 Martyrs of September.  Although those saints were from other religious orders -- not Carmelites -- most of them were imprisoned in the historic Carmelite convent in Paris before they were killed during the French Revolution.  They were among 1400 people killed in a bloody September massacre in the name of liberty.  The Patron Saints Index offers the following short explanation:

"A group of 191 martyrs who died in the French Revolution. They were imprisoned in the Carmelite house in the rue de Rennes, Paris by the Legislative Assembly for refusing to take the oath to support the civil constitution of the clergy. This act placed priests under the control of the state, and had been condemned by the Vatican."

On August 11, 1792, the church of that Discalced Carmelite convent (the Chapelle Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes) was converted into a prison for 160 people, including aristocrats and priests who refused to take the oath accepting state control of the clergy.  On September 2, 116 of them were killed there by mob violence.  Their skulls are still displayed in the crypt of that chapel (photo -- scroll down), which is now the church of the Institut Catholique de Paris and its university seminary known as the Séminaire des Carmes. 

Elena Maria Vidal has a tribute to the Martyrs of September at Tea at Trianon. 

Tomorrow in Paris, there will be a Mass in their honor, in the  Latin Extraordinary Form.  The Gregorian chant Schola Sainte Cécile will participate.  That schola was mentioned earlier this week for their contribution to a training conference  at Merton College, Oxford, for the Extraordinary Form of the Mass.

The Paris Carmelite convent and its Chapelle Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes were first built by Carmelite friars from 1611 to 1613 and remained a house of Carmelite friars until 1790.  It then became a place of importance in the French Revolution, primarily as a notorious prison, evacuated in 1794 after the death of Robespierre.  From 1797 to 1841, it became a convent for Carmelite nuns.  Unable to support the historic structure, the Carmelites sold it to the Archbishop of Paris in 1841.  Beginning in 1845,  it became an ecclesiastical school.  At the end of World War I, it became a seminary, as seminarians from the occupied zones increased the number of students.  Known as the Séminaire des Carmes, it is now the university seminary of the Institut Catholique de Paris.  (Source)

The Carmelites best known for their deaths in the aftermath of the French Revolution are the Martyrs of Compiègne, 16 Carmelite nuns from a monastery near Paris who were guillotined in Paris in mid-July, 1794.  The memorial of the beatified Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne is July 17.  They are mentioned in the Catholic Encyclopedia.

Comments

[elena maria vidal]

I am glad to hear about the Mass in Paris in honor of the September martyrs! Thanks for the link!!