CARMEL SAINT-JOSEPH

The tragic story of the Carmelites of Compiègne during the Terror was told by the writer Bernanos and set to opera by Francis Poulenc. The Carmelite convent in Compiègne originated from the monasteries in Amiens and Paris. In 1641, the eight founding Carmelites took possession of the house known as the "Golden Fleece". After several moves, they entered their monastery in 1648. The proximity of the Court earned the community many visits and the blessings of Anne of Austria, Louis XIV and later Marie Leczinska and her daughters. In 1792, the sisters were expelled but continued to live their religious life discreetly. They offered their lives to God so that peace could be restored to the Church and the State. Denounced and arrested, they were imprisoned on June 22, 1794 at the Visitation monastery before being transferred to the Conciergerie in Paris. They were guillotined on July 17, on what is now the Place de la Nation. The nuns went to the scaffold singing the Veni Creator, in front of a stunned and shocked crowd. The Revolution of 1848 dispersed the sisters. In 1867, under the leadership of Mother Marie-Thérèse de l'Enfant-Jésus, a few nuns from the Carmelite monastery in Troyes moved to a hovel on the outskirts of the city. The construction of the monastery was completed in 1872 and the chapel in 1888. In 1896, a process for the beatification of the guillotined Carmelite nuns began. It was Pope Pius X who proceeded to their beatification in 1906. Because of the large number of novices, the Carmelite convent founded another house in the diocese of Beauvais in 1892. The anti-clerical laws at the beginning of the 20th century drove the sisters into exile in Belgium. In the 1980s, the monastery became too small and dilapidated. The Carmelites decided to build a new one in Jonquières, ten kilometers east of Compiègne. It was inaugurated in 1992. In the crypt of the church are kept the memories of the martyred Carmelites, whose bodies rest in the Picpus cemetery (Paris XII).

Services: Lauds at 7:30 a.m., Eucharist at 11 a.m., Vespers at 6 p.m. and Compline at 8:15 p.m. The monastery's church is open every day from 6am to 9pm and the crypt from 8am to 5pm for those wishing to share in the silent prayer and liturgy of the community.

Reception: very limited reception for people wishing to make an individual retreat.

Visits: upon prior telephone request to the carmel, you have the possibility of accessing the Memorial of the Carmelite Martyrs which is located in Jonquières.