00 17/07/2012 17:08


Tuesday, July 17, 15th Week in Ordinary Time

CARMELITE NUNS OF COMPIEGNE(France, d 1974), Virgins and Martyrs
When the French Revolution started in 1789, a group of twenty-one discalced Carmelites lived in a monastery in Compiegne, founded in 1641. The monastery was ordered closed in 1790 by the Revolutionary gov­ernment, and the nuns were disbanded. Sixteen of the nuns were accused of continuing to live in a religious community in 1794. They were arrested on June 22 and imprisoned in a Visitation convent in Compiegne, where they openly resumed their religious life. On July 12, 1794, the Carmelites were taken to Paris and five days later were sentenced to death by guillotine. At the foot of the scaffold, the community jointly renewed their vows and began to chant the ;Veni Creator Spiritus', the hymn sung at the ceremony for the profession of vows. They continued their singing as, one by one, they mounted the scaffold to meet their death. The novice of the community, Sister Constance, was the first to die, then the lay Sisters and externs, and so on, ending with the prioress, Mother Teresa of St. Augustine, O.C.D. The martyrdom of the nuns was immortalized by the composer Francois Poulenc in his famous opera Dialogues des Carmelites.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071712.cfm


AT THE VATICAN TODAY

No events announced for the Holy Father.


Briefing tomorrow
on Moneyval report


The Moneyval report on the status of the Vatican's application to get on the 'white list' of European states meeting international standards for measures against money laundering and funding of terrorism will be released officially at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow, Wednesday.

The report is based on the second on-site inspection held by Moneyval in April 2012.

This will be followed at 11:30 by a briefing in the Vatican Press Room by Mons. Ettore Balestrero, Vatican Under-Secretary for Relations with States.