CARMEL AND COMPIÈGNE - Homily for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

"All the way [to the guillotine] the Carmelite sisters sang: the 'Miserere,' 'Salve Regina,' and 'Te Deum.' Beholding them, a total silence fell on the racous, brutal crowd, most of them cheapened and hardened by day after day of the spectacle of public slaughter. At the foot of the towering killing machine, their eyes raised to Heaven, the sisters sang 'Veni Creator Spiritus.' Sister Teresa, their prioress, requested and obtained permission to go last under the knife. The youngest, Sister Constance, went first. She climbed the steps of the guillotine 'with the air of a queen going to receive her crown,' singing Laudate Dominum omnes gentes, 'all peoples praise the Lord.' She placed her head in the position for death without allowing the executioner to touch her. Each sister followed her example, those remaining singing likewise with each, until only the prioress was left, holding in her hand a small figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The killing of each marter required about two minutes. It was about eight o'clock in the evening, still bright at midsummer. During the whole time the profound silence of the crowd about the guillotine endured unbroken."