Thérèse Couderc

Thérèse Couderc

Thérèse Couderc (birth name: Marie-Victoire Courderc , born February 1, 1805 in Sablières , France , † September 26, 1885 in Lyon , France) was a French Roman Catholic nun, mystic and founder of the order. She is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church .

Marie-Victoire Couderc, who took the religious name Thérése , co-founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cenacle in 1827 . The Congregation was dedicated to under the symbol of the Upper Room the Divine Office, the worship of the Eucharist and the Christian education of women.

It was founded in 1951 by Pope Pius XII. Beatified and in 1970 by Pope Paul VI. canonized .

Life

Origin and calling

Marie-Victoire Couderc was born the fourth of 12 children to a rural family in the hamlet of Le Mas in the village of Sablières, 30 km southwest of Aubenas, in rural seclusion. At the age of 17 she entered the boarding school of the Joseph Sisters of Les Vans . At the age of 21 she entered in Alba-la-Romaine (former name: Aps) in 1826 at the instigation of the local pastor Étienne Terme (1791-1834) as the third member of a community of sisters he had just founded and took the religious name Therese.

The matron

In 1828 she became superior (previously she was novice master ) in the house established by Terme in his new parish of Lalouvesc to receive the numerous female pilgrims who came from all over to the tomb of Saint Jean François Régis . The sisters called themselves "Sisters of St. Régis". Originally intended as a hotel, Therese converted it into a place of prayer and retreat , a house of contemplation (French: retraite ). Terme drafted constitutions for the Institute of Retreat Sisters ( Institut des Dames de la Retraite ). Therese was also the superior of the other houses (namely the teaching) of the community founded by Terme. Terme died in December 1834, leaving the work, whose soul he was with Therese, unfinished. In July 1836 the teaching sisters split from the retreat sisters. In January 1837 Therese made her perpetual vows.

The crash

As a result of the intrigue of a novice at Terme succeeded spiritual director (François Renault, SJ, 1788-1860) Therese was forced to abdicate on October 26, 1838, which she accepted without complaint. After the successor installed by Renault failed within a year, Charlotte Contenet (1839-1852), who was elected on Therese's advice, succeeded in consolidating, but at the cost of displacing almost all of the founding members. Therese was continually humiliated by the new superior by transferring the lowest work. Her services as co-founder were forgotten.

Self-chosen humility

From March 1842, Therese lived on the orders of the superior in Lyon, first in the Montée Saint-Barthélemy, and from December in the house on the Fourvière hill that she had acquired for the congregation . The principle of life practiced by her and also formulated in letters was: "Lord grant me the grace to be despised so that I may look a little like you" ( Faites-moi la grâce d'aimer à être méprisée, pour vous ressembler un peu ) . It was taken from the third degree of humility in the spiritual exercises of Ignatius of Loyola and became the mystical foundation of their entire existence from 1837 at the latest.

Functions in the Order and Death

In 1850, Oberin Contenet founded a branch in Paris (Rue du Regard 15). She died in 1852. Her successor, Françoise Antoinette de Larochenégly (* 1804, Superior 1852–1877, † 1900), Therese was more balanced. In 1855 she was sent to Paris to resolve a crisis that ended with the split off of a group of five (three of which came back later). From November 1856 to June 1857 she was superior in Tournon , then in Lalouvesc. From 1860 she was co-founder of the House of Montpellier , from 1861 until the dissolution of the House Vice-Superior ("assistante"). From 1867 until her death in 1885 she lived in Fourvière.

The mystic

Therese's spiritual experience is expressed in numerous letters. The key term is abandon , meaning letting go, self-withdrawal, self-denial, self-abandonment, self-forgetfulness, self-surrender, self-mortification. From around 1860 she had mystical visions in which she learned that she was called to serve as a “ Holocaust victim ”. The idea of ​​her role revolves around the key term se livrer (to sacrifice oneself), the verbal equivalent of abandon . The goodness of God ("bonté") was oversized for her. The mystical experiences triggered a mixture of happiness and apprehension in her.

Development of the Order and Canonization

The "Sisters of the Coenaculum" (French: Cénacle ) or "Sisters of Our Lady from Retreat to the Upper Room " (Latin Sorores Dominae Nostrae a Recessu Caenaculi ), recognized by the local bishop in 1836 , received the papal decree of recognition in 1863 and final recognition in 1870. In 1877, at the age of 72, eight years before her death, Therese was recognized and proclaimed as founder by the new matron Marie-Aimée Lautier (* 1835, matron 1877 to † 1926). 1935 she was by Pius XI. Declared adorable. 1951 she was by Pius XII. beatified and in 1970 by Paul VI. canonized.

literature

• André Combes: La bienheureuse Thérèse Couderc, fondatrice du Cénacle . Albin Michel, Paris 1956.
• Jean Comby: "Thérèse Couderc, le Cénacle et la vie lyonnaise". In: Histoire religieuse. Histoire global, histoire ouverte. Mélanges offerts à Jacques Gadille . Edited by Jean-Dominique Durand and Régis Ladous. Editions Beauchesne, Paris 1992, pp. 317-340.
• Ghislaine Côté: Le Cénacle. Fondements Christologiques et Spiritualité . Ed. Beauchesne, Paris 1991 (Google Books, Repères chronologiques, pp. 423-425).
• Paule de Lassus: Quelques essais sur la spiritualité de Thérèse Couderc, 1805-1885, la femme, la sainte. Imprimerie Lescuyer, Lyon 1985.
• Georges Longhaye: La Société de Notre-Dame du Cénacle. Origines et fondateurs . Retaux, Paris 1898
• Henri Perroy: Une grande humble. Marie-Victoire-Thérèse Couderc, fondatrice du Cénacle, 1805-1885 . Beauchesne, Paris 1928.

Web links

• Appreciation by a French Benedictine, German
• Entry in the ecumenical dictionary of saints
• Short article on the Sisters of the Cenacle