Feast Day of the Carmelite Nuns of Compiegne, July 17

Bastille Day was Tuesday, the day when the French celebrate the start of the French Revolution. The fate of the Carmelite Nuns of Compiegne shows why it's a stupid idea.

The nuns were discalced Carmelites living in a convent in Compiegne. The Revolutionary government shut the convent down, so the sisters moved to another convent and continued to practice their beliefs. Arrested and brought to Paris, they were sent to the guillotine (16 of them in total) - where they sang "Salve Regina" until the end.

The French writer Denis Diderot wrote, "Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." Although the quote predates the French Revolution, it sums up what the revolution hoped to achieve.

Discalced - without shoes.

The video is from an opera called "Les Dialogues des Carmelites by Francis Pulenc.