Marie-Catherine Cadière
Marie-Catherine Cadière or often just Catherine Cadière (* 1709 in Toulon , † after 1731 ) became known throughout Europe as the alleged victim of sexual abuse by the Jesuit father Jean-Baptiste Girard in the 1730s.
Marie-Catherine Cadière, who apparently suffered from physical and mental instability since a plague in 1720 and was prone to religious trance , became the confessor of Father Jean-Baptiste Girard for two years in 1728. When allegations of corruption were raised against Girard, the Cadière family withdrew them from him in June 1730. Their increasingly socially conspicuous behavior with alleged visions and stigmatization led to them being charged with witchcraft at the end of 1730 . Her family then complained against Father Girard that he had exploited the dependency and helplessness of his confessor to commit grave misconduct. Girard was accused of aggravating her illness, seducing her to intercourse in the confessional and later inciting an abortion. The statements of other confessors of Girard supported the accusation, but this was acquitted on October 10, 1731 in Toulon. The court also dropped all allegations against Marie-Catherine Cadière. Your trace is then lost. Whether and how Catherine Cadière was actually abused by Girard, or whether her family or even herself staged her performances for their own purposes, remained controversial.
The process was overshadowed by the dispute between Jesuits and Jansenists , who at that time were engaged in a heated argument about the interpretation of Catholicism . The dispute over the guilt or innocence of Girard and the role of Cadière as a victim not only aroused France, but found interest far beyond its borders. Songs, poems and pamphlets were written in large numbers and contributed to the development of the press and enlightenment criticism of church and state.
The affair continued to circulate for many years and was also processed literarily. Voltaire dealt with it, and the novel Thérèse philosophe , one of the best-selling libertine works of the 18th century, took the characters Girard and Cadière as anagrammatically veiled protagonists.
literature
- Hertha Busemann: The Jesuit and his confessor. The fascination of a moral scandal in three centuries. BIS, library u. Information system d. Univ. Oldenburg. With e. Foreword by Ernst Hinrichs. Oldenburg 1987, ISBN 3814202058
Web links
- Short biography, website of the University of Trier
- Trial between the Father Girard, Societat. Jeſu, Rectoris of the Seminarii de la Marine at Toulon, and the maid Cadiere. Translated from the Frantzöſchen original into Teutſche. Cölln am Rhein, 1732. in the Google book search
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cadière, Marie-Catherine |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Cadière, Catherine |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Fictional character |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1709 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Toulon |
| DATE OF DEATH | after 1731 |