THERMIDOR

The end of Marat

[From issue #82 (1983) of APPROACHES, edited by Hamish Fraser]

In the June 1983, No.40 issue of de Rome et d'Ailleurs, our good friend H. Le Caron dedicated an article to the Sixteen Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne who were guillotined for their faith on July 17, 1794 and beatified by Pope St Pius X on May 27, 1906. (1)

These truly Catholic sisters had been driven from their convent by Jacobin fury on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14, 1792).  The Jacobin Terror was then raging and the Carmelite sisters, under the leadership of their prioress, Mother Therese de Saint Augustin, decided to offer themselves as a holocaust in order to appease God's wrath, and for the intention of restoring the peace of Christ to both Church and State.

Their holocaust was found acceptable by God.  For a mere ten days later, on July 27, 1794 (9 Thermidor on the Revolutionary calendar) Robespierre, Saint Just and other monsters associated with them followed them to the scaffold.  In effect this marked the end of the Jacobin Terror.

Ever since then the very word "Thermidor" has not ceased to strike terror in the hearts of revolutionaries such as Trotsky and his disciples.

The "Thermidor" of the Russian Revolution will not come however until the consummation of a further holocaust of sufficient prayer and penance to merit the grace of the collegial consecration of Russia to Mary's Immaculate Heart.

NOTES:
1. It may interest readers to know that the 16 Compiegne martyrs were sheltered by Monsieur Le Caron's grandmother, Mme de la Vallee.  The Le Caron family later restored their relics to the Carmel of Compiegne.

Postscript by Editor of The Eye Witness:  Fraser's article was written before the dramatic events in Russia starting in 1989 (Hamish Fraser died in 1986) but his essential point about the Consecration of Russia remains as valid as ever.  Russia has come a long way but much still needs to be done to fully restore the peace of Christ to that land so loved by the Mother of God, primarily the action of the Pope.  Our current Pope may want to reflect on how his call for a day of prayer and penance saved Syria from destruction by US and Israeli forces and ponder what might be the effect of obeying Our Lady of Fatima's specific request.

It is also helpful to know that there is a word out there that will cause our current crop of revolutionaries to squirm and to cower:

Thermidor.