Thérèse Couderc

Saint
Thérèse Couderc
Religious
Born (1805-02-01)1 February 1805
Mas de Sablières, Ardèche, First French Empire
Died 26 September 1885(1885-09-26) (aged 80)
Lyon, Rhône, French Third Republic
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Beatified 4 November 1951, Saint Peter's Basilica, Vatican City by Pope Pius XII
Canonized 10 May 1970, Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope Paul VI
Feast 26 September
Attributes Religious habit
Patronage Sisters of the Cenacle

Saint Thérèse Couderc (1 February 1805 – 26 September 1885) - born Marie-Victoire Couderc - was a French Roman Catholic professed religious and the co-founder of the Sisters of the Cenacle.[1] Couderc underwent humiliations during her time as a nun for she was forced to resign from positions and was ridiculed and mocked due to false accusations made against her though this softened towards the end of her life. She was a spiritual writer having written on sacrifice and service to God for which she - after her death - left a series of spiritual writings.[2]

Pope Pius XII beatified the late religious in Saint Peter's Basilica on 4 November 1951 and in 1970 was canonized as a saint under Pope Paul VI.

Life

Marie-Victoire Couderc was born in 1805 in Le Mas as the fourth of twelve children to Claude Michel Corderc (1780-???) and Anne Méry; her parents married in 1801.[2] One sibling was Jean and two others died in their childhood. The surviving children were eight males and two females that included herself (she was the eldest of the girls). In her childhood she attended Mass twice a week.[1] She made her First Communion at Pentecost on 15 May 1815.

In 1822 her parents sent her to a boarding school at Vans and she remained there until 1825 in Lent when her father wanted her to attend a school in their local area.[2]

Couderc underwent her period of the novitiate with the Sisters of Saint Regis in Lalouvesc in 1825; she made her perpetual vows on 6 January 1837 with one other. She entered the novitiate after she had met Father Jean-Pierre Etienne Terme in late March 1825 and confided in him her desire to become a religious.[1][2] Couderc assumed a religious name when she became a novice.

She grew concerned with the welfare of female pilgrims visiting the shrine of Saint John Francis Regis and so decided to establish a religious congregation in order to deal with this issue. Couderc co-founded the Sisters of the Cenacle with Father Terme in 1826 and became its superior in 1828 - and when the motherhouse was established - its Superior General until 1838. In 1828 Terme began to hold Ignatian retreats for the sisters and the Jesuits led these after Terme died in December 1834.[1] Terme's death prompted the order to split into the Sisters of Saint Regis and the Sisters of the Cenacle and problems continued on 23 October 1828 when an scheming religious issued an incorrect financial report in order to undermine Couderc. This tribulation led to the Bishop of Viviers Abbon-Pierre-François Bonnel de la Brageresse to remove her from her office and replacing her with a new novice as the "Foundress Superior" in a severe humiliating move; she resigned in full on 27 October 1838.[2][1] This novice led for a few months but did so bad a job the bishop removed her. Under Couderc's influence the order elected Contenet but she further humiliated the former.

In 1842 she was sent for almost eighteen months alone with one other sister in a small house in Lyon while the later death of Contenet in 1852 saw her go to Paris due to a crisis within the order as a result of this. In November 1856 she was appointed as the superior of the Tournon house until it was to be sold off and so she returned to Lyon.[1] On 20 October 1859 a Jesuit gave a retreat on the topic of Christian sacrifice that had a profound impact on her. At the end of August 1860 she was sent to the house at Montpellier but its closure in 1867 saw her return to Lyon once more.

In the beginning of 1885 she fainted and was unconscious for several hours in an occurrence that left her bedridden until her death.[1] Couderc died on 26 September 1885 and was buried in Lalouvesc.

Sainthood

The beatification cause commenced in an informative process that opened in France in 1920 and concluded its work in 1921 which then led to the approval of all of her spiritual writings from theologians on 23 July 1924; the informative process was validated by the Congregation of Rites on 13 July 1927. The formal introduction to the cause came on 18 July 1927 in which she was titled as a Servant of God - the first official stage in the process.

An antepreparatory committee met on 31 July 1934 and approved the cause while a preparatory committee also approved it on 18 December 1934 and a general committee on 30 April 1925. Pope Pius XI proclaimed Couderc to be Venerable on 12 May 1935 after he confirmed that the late nun lived a life of heroic virtue. Pope Pius XII beatified her on 4 November 1951 after approving two miracles attributed to her intercession while the cause was resumed in a decree issued on 26 July 1953. Pope Paul VI canonized Couderc as a saint on 10 May 1970 after approving two more miracles attributed to her intercession.

Spirituality

To Surrender Oneself

Like other Christian mystics, Saint Thérèse Couderc experienced from her own life and prayer that the path to happiness is handing oneself over to God, in union with the self-giving of Christ. In 1864 she writes:

But what does it mean to surrender oneself?
I understand the full extent of the expression to surrender oneself, but I cannot explain it. I only know that it is very vast, that it embraces both the present and the future.
To surrender oneself is more than to devote oneself, more than to give oneself, it is even something more than to abandon oneself to God. In a word, to surrender oneself is to die to everything and to self, to be no longer concerned with self except to keep it continually turned toward God.
To surrender oneself is, moreover, no longer to seek oneself in anything, either for the spiritual or the physical, that is to say, no longer to seek one's own satisfaction, but solely the divine good pleasure.
It should be added that to surrender oneself is also to follow that spirit of detachment which clings to nothing, neither to persons nor to things, neither to time nor to place. It means to adhere to everything, to accept everything, to submit to everything.
But perhaps you will think that this is very difficult to do. Do not let yourself be deceived. There is nothing so easy to do, nothing so sweet to put into practice. The whole thing consists in making a generous act once and for all, saying with all the sincerity of your soul: "My God, I wish to be entirely thine; deign to accept my offering." And all is said. But from then on, you must take care to keep yourself in this disposition of soul and not to shrink from any of the little sacrifices which can help you advance in virtue. You must always remember that you have surrendered yourself.
I pray to our Lord to give an understanding of this word to all souls desirous of pleasing him and to inspire them to take advantage of so easy a means of sanctification. Oh! If people could just understand ahead of time the sweetness and peace that are savored when nothing is held back from the good God! How he communicates himself to the one who seeks him sincerely and has known how to surrender herself. Let them experience it and they will see that here is found the true happiness they are vainly seeking elsewhere.
The surrendered soul has found paradise on earth, since she enjoys that sweet peace which is part of the happiness of the elect.

Goodness

In 1866, Saint Thérèse Couderc had a vision of goodness which was a defining moment for her life and spirituality, and which she describes in a letter to Mother de Larochenégly:

A few days ago, I saw something that consoled me very much. It was during my thanksgiving, when I was making a few reflections on the goodness of God — and how would it be possible not to think of this in such moments: of this infinite goodness, uncreated goodness, source of all goodness! And without which there would be no goodness, neither in people nor in other creatures.
I was extremely touched by these reflections, when I saw written as in letters of gold this word Goodness, which I repeated for a long while with an indescribable sweetness. I saw it, I say, written on all creatures, animate and inanimate, rational or not — all bore this name of goodness. I saw it even on the chair which I was using for a kneeler. I understood then that all that these creatures have of good and all the services and help that we receive from each of them are a blessing that we owe to the goodness of our God, who has communicated to them something of his infinite goodness, so that we may meet it in everything and everywhere.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Spiritual Newsletter". Abbey of Saint-Joseph de Clairval. 29 September 2008. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Saints Who Loved the Blessed Sacrament". Society of Saint Pius X in Canada. 2003. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
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