Newark, N.J., May 7, 2007 / 09:45 am
An opera, which tells the true story of 16 Carmelite nuns who were martyred during the French Revolution, will be performed at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark this month.
Dialogues of the Carmelites tells of the final days of the French Revolution, when the Committee of Public Safety was created to preserve the reforms of the revolution. Their aim was to eliminate all counter-revolutionary elements, including people dedicated to the faith.
This aim resulted in the Reign of Terror, a period characterized by a wave of executions. Sixteen Carmelites of the Monastery of the Incarnation in Compiègne were arrested on June 24, 1794, and thrown into prison. While singing hymns, they were guillotined in Paris one month later. Pope Pius X beatified these martyrs of the faith in 1906.