The Lyon Museum of Fine Arts, a former convent, has been haunted by the spirit of a nun with a very dissolute life.
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In Lyon, people tremble for the story of this light-hearted nun who haunted the walls of the convent of Saint-Pierre, which has now become the Museum of Fine Arts.
An exorcist intervened in 1526 to chase the spirit of the unfortunate woman, who asked to reach paradise.
If you walk through the aisles of the Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon, perhaps you will hear, if you listen, the whisper of Alix de Theizé.
His spirit was normally driven out by an exorcist in the 16th century, but who knows?
His soul, tortured for a long time, perhaps still prowls in the walls of this former abbey (of Saint-Pierre-les-Nonnains), where the customs were very light and very far from the standards imposed by the Benedictine order.
Let's go back to the year 1506, when the current Terreaux district was kept away from the rest of the city of Lyon.
La Croix-Rousse was not yet annexed, and ramparts protected the monastery from any possible invasion.
"It was the least inhabited part of the city, a really remote place," says Eloïse Boisrou, street storyteller and director of Lyon Insolite.
“About thirty nuns, girls from good families, lived in this convent.
Very quickly, they will not at all respect the rules imposed by their order, namely silence and chastity ”.
Fine parties and alcoholic banquets
To say that the abbey was in fact a place of debauchery is an understatement.
The nuns give it their all.
In their particular cells, they receive men eager for sexual relations at all hours.
The nuns organize parties where the wine flows freely but also fine parties with scandalous repercussions.
Considered a temple of lust, the monastery however escapes the authority of the bishop since it is placed under the authority of the pope.
King Louis XII and his wife Anne of Brittany get involved.
Without success.
A papal bull (sealed document) is written to relate what is happening behind the walls of the convent.
“But it has never been translated because what was reported in detail was far too vulgar, reveals Eloïse Boisrou.
The nuns refused to submit.
They held on.
They revolted, even succeeding in having the Archbishop of Lyon excommunicated ”.
The sweet possessed lover
In 1516, King François I in turn tried to bring the Benedictines to their senses.
And in particular the beautiful Alix de Theizé (or Alice according to historians).
The sacristan of the place.
The most devoured of the group.
The one who grants her favors to both men and women (or both at the same time) is deeply attached to her sweet lover, the young nun Antoinette de Grôlée.
"To strike hard and restore order, the authorities decide to send Alix to another convent in Mionnay, where she will continue her life of debauchery", continues the storyteller.
She will eventually die there in 1524.
Two years later, “Antoinette, who had remained at the abbey of Saint-Pierre, felt a presence, narrates Eloïse Boisrou.
At night, she saw the curtains move.
She also felt someone kissing her on the mouth ”.
The story also goes that the convent, once again a place of tranquility, was full of noises just as strange as each other.
Objects could even move.
And Antoinette will end up possessed.
The intervention of an exorcist in 1526
“She understood that Alix came to visit her at night to obtain forgiveness from the religious congregation but also to implore her help.
His soul was stuck in purgatory because of his too many sins.
It was therefore decided to call on an exorcist, ”continues the storyteller, specifying that very precise writings, attesting to his intervention, were found and preserved.
The man thus purifies the walls of the convent, unenchants Antoinette and allows the temptress, absolute by her sisters, to reach paradise.
But we whisper in the Lyon community, the beauty would always like to come back to walk in the gardens of the palace or wander in the aisles of the cloister ...
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