Blessed: The true story of the Carmelite martyrs of Compiègne

Perhaps you know the story of the Carmelite martyrs of Compiègne, thanks to Bernanos’ “Dialogues of the Carmelites” or its adaptation by Poulenc for the opera? But do you know that the central character: Blanche de la Force, never existed? Marked by a childhood memory, the documentary director François Lespes (“Valaam, the Archipelago of the Monks”, “Venerable Jerome Lejeune, To the Least of These my Brothers & Sisters”, “The Song of the Longing Heart”) wanted to tell the true story of these 16 women, who after being arrested and sentenced to death, went to the guillotine singing and offering their lives "so that Peace may be restored to the Church and the state", 10 days before the fall of Robespierre and the end of the Great Terror regime. In our time of great tensions between men and nations, Pope Francis canonized the Carmelites of Compiègne in December 2024, offering their extraordinary testimony to the entire Church and the world: What have they to tell us today? A coproduction KTO / De Grand Matin Productions