The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

128 Jeanne des Anges
beat herself up to seven hours a day. Surin, a great believer
in discipline, encouraged her.
Jeanne became more receptive to Surin, and by summer
1635, they were meeting privately in the convent’s
attic, where he expounded on mystical theology and they
prayed together. These private sessions raised gossip in
Loudun, which the two ignored.
Whenever Jeanne objected to the mortifications prescribed
by Surin, which were private instead of public,
she let the demons out to howl and complain. Surin ordered
the demons to whip themselves—and they did,
making Jeanne scream.
In February 1635, Isacaaron announced that three
anonymous magicians had three consecrated wafers,
which they intended to burn. Surin ordered Isacaaron to
fetch the wafers. At first, the demon refused and then relented.
The three wafers mysteriously appeared in a niche
at the convent. The feat appeared to be a miracle.
Surin had transformed himself from exorcist to
Jeanne’s spiritual director, displeasing the Jesuit authorities.
In October 1635, he was ordered to return to Bordeaux
and be replaced by another exorcist. Distressed,
Jeanne fell ill for several days and then asked to be exorcized.
On November 5, in front of a large crowd, Surin
expelled Leviathan from her and was allowed to stay on
at the convent.
A bloody cross appeared on her forehead and remained
for three weeks. Then Balaam announced he was ready to
go and would write his name on Jeanne’s left hand when
he did so. Jeanne prayed mightily that the demon would
inscribe the name of St. Joseph, not his own. The demon
departed on November 29, leaving Jeanne marked with
the name Joseph. Surin viewed this as an extraordinary
grace from God. Others believed it to be the product of
autosuggestion. But the crowds saw her as a saint. Later,
the names of Jesus, Mary, and St. Francis de Sales were
added to her arm. The names would fade after a few weeks
and then be renewed by Jeanne’s good angel.
Isacaaron left Jeanne on January 7, 1636. Surin took
on BEHEMOTH, but 10 months went by with no progress.
In October, he broke down and was recalled to Bordeaux.
He was replaced by Father Resses.
As she had with Surin, Jeanne resisted Resses, but he
forced exorcisms on her anyway. She fell ill and vomited
blood. Her condition deteriorated and extreme unction
was given. She had a vision in which God told her she
would be taken to the point of death but would not die.
She reached a point where doctors felt she had only hours
to live, and then she had a vision of her good angel in the
form of a beautiful youth, followed by St. Joseph, who
anointed her with oil, and she miraculously recovered.
Later, she revealed her chemise had an oil stain of five
drops. She probably faked the evidence, but it took on the
status of a relic.
Behemoth announced that he would not depart without
Jeanne’s making a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Francis
of Sales at Annency, accompanied by Surin. The priest
was recalled to Loudun in June to comply. He and a companion,
Father Thomas, accompanied Jeanne on part of
her pilgrimage, and then Surin’s job with her was done.
Jeanne’s five-month pilgrimage was a triumphal march
through France in 1638. She visited major cities, including
Paris, Lyon, Orléans, Grenoble, Blois, and Annency.
Tens of thousands turned out to see her and view her relics,
the names on her arm, and the stained shirt. At Annency,
a possessed girl was cured by touching the stained
shirt.
Jeanne had audiences with royalty, including Queen
Anne, wife of Louis XIII; archbishops; and the dying Cardinal
Richelieu (who privately thought the Loudun affair
was a fraud). Her stained chemise was used as a blanket
in the birth of Louis XIV. Everywhere she went, she was
hailed and admired.
On October 15, Behemoth kept his end of the bargain
and departed from Jeanne, and Surin returned again to
Bordeaux.
After the pilgrimage, Jeanne returned to the Loudun
convent, never to leave it again. She was bored and hungry
for the limelight, but now there were no devils and no
miracles to use to gain attention. She fell seriously ill and
miraculously recovered, but this time the “miracle” was
barely noticed.
A few times, the demons reappeared, to beat her and
harass her. Jeanne, however, was more interested in producing
heavenly miracles than engaging in fights with
the infernal. She claimed her heart split in two and was
marked invisibly with the instruments of the Passion.
Souls in purgatory appeared to her and spoke. Increasingly,
she developed a relationship with her guardian angel
and prayed for “true lights” to be revealed to her. Her
angel complied, dispensing even personal advice to visitors
of the most petty nature.
Jeanne began to write her autobiography in 1644. Her
account of events reveals a personality self-absorbed and
unconcerned about the consequences of her actions. She
made little reference to the unfortunate Grandier, even
though at the height of the drama, she had confessed her
guilt and remorse at framing him with lies. Rather, she
saw her life as a spiritual quest, in which she had allowed
demons to act against her as a consequence of her own
defective will. Twice during the depths of her spiritual
darkness, she had tried to commit suicide.
For years, she wrote to Surin, but she received no reply
until 1657, when he resumed serving as her spiritual
director until his death in 1665. She enjoyed a correspondence
and close friendship with him, confessing the state
of her soul, still seeking to be the center of attention to
the end of her life.
By 1662, her “miracles” were at an end. Despite her
saintliness, she was still the object of criticism and was
called a witch and magician even in the last years of her
life.