LOUDUN, ORSOLINE di. — The community founded in 1626 by the Ursulines of Poitiers (Congregation of Bordeaux) at L., a city in the diocese of Poitiers, with a boarding school for girls, became famous for the demonic possessions that lasted from 1632 to 1638. Sister Giovanna degli Angeli (in the world Jeanne de Belcier) was the prioress of the new community, composed of 17 religious belonging to the high aristocracy, among them a relative of Richelieu.
The dean of the canons of S. Croce, Mignon, was chosen as chaplain of the Institute, a position coveted by the canon Urbano Grandier, parish priest of S. Pietro at L. Very influential because of his qualities, but of ambiguous moral conduct, Grandier had many enemies: exiled forever from L.,
he managed to return there, arousing discontent in the city. In 1632 Sister Giovanna degli Angeli accused herself of demonic possession, with typical manifestations; the prior of Fresne and Grandier appeared to her, and everyone was talking about their affairs. Within a short time all the religious women felt themselves possessed, with terrifying excesses: they recounted the same visions, pronounced the name of Grandier, who was said to have unleashed hell in the monastery by throwing a bunch of roses over the boundary wall. Mignon, together with two neighboring parish priests, began public exorcisms on 11 October in the presence of physicians and authorities, without any result. From an investigation ordered in his capacity as metropolitan by the archbishop of Bordeaux, Henri de Sourdis, it emerged that this was not possession, but rather hysteria: the exorcisms were therefore suspended, and severe penalties were imposed on anyone who intervened in the matter. J. M. de Laubardement, however, arrived at L.; he was a military intendant and counselor to Louis XIII, and Richelieu’s confidant, with the task of suppressing Grandier. Interrogations were begun, and the demons, which for some time had no longer troubled anyone, once again had free rein and took possession not only of the nuns, but also of several girls. Grandier was condemned to the stake, which he ascended on 23 August 1633, despite the fact that two nuns had withdrawn their accusations. The possession continued even after Grandier’s death: Fr. J. J. Surin, the Jesuit assigned to the exorcisms, emerged from it possessed, to such an extent that his superiors removed him from L. Finally, in 1638, when Richelieu suspended the pensions, the exorcists dispersed and the possessed women regained their serenity.
The event is very strange and perplexing, like the earlier one at Aix, which led to the burning for “magic” of the abbé Jacques Gaufridy (1612). Modern historians do not attribute responsibility for the possessions to Grandier, who never entered the monastery. Many reservations are prompted by the way in which the events unfolded and by the people who took part in them. The exorcists, subject to the civil authorities, were transformed into docile functionaries. While Catholics hoped to derive from the affair an easy means of converting heretics and “libertines,” the latter denied the validity of the possessions at L. On the part of the religious women, the epidemic character of the phenomenon is unmistakable. Sister Giovanna is a complex figure who displays no characteristics of proven sanctity; throughout her life she was dominated by the desire to have people talk about her.