This Saturday is Halloween, the opportunity to tell horror stories.
20 Minutes
makes you discover those of cursed places or haunted houses all over France.
In Lyon, we tremble for the story of this nun with loose morals 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 drive out the spirit of the unfortunate woman, who asked to join paradise.
If you walk through the aisles of the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon, perhaps you will hear, if you strain your ears, the murmur of Alix de Theizé.
Her spirit was normally cast out by an exorcist in the 16th century, but who knows?
His soul, tortured for a long time, may still lurk within the walls of this former abbey (of Saint-Pierre-les-Nonnains), where morals 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 apart 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 leader 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 actually a place of debauchery is an understatement.
The nuns have a field day.
In their private cells, they receive at all hours men eager for sexual relations.
The nuns organize parties where the wine flows freely but also fine parties with scandalous repercussions.
Considered a temple of luxury, 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 (document under seal) is written to relate what is happening behind the walls of the convent.
“But it was never 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 excommunicating the Archbishop of Lyon”.
The sweet possessed lover
In 1516, King François 1er tried in turn to bring the Benedictines to their senses.
And in particular the beautiful Alix de Theizé (or Alice according to historians).
The sexton of the place.
The craziest of the group.
The one who grants her favors to both men and women (or even 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 would 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 moving.
She also felt someone kissing her on the mouth.
The story also tells that the convent, once again a place of tranquility, was full of equally strange noises.
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 seek forgiveness from the religious congregation but also to implore her help.
Her soul was stuck in purgatory due to her too many sins.
It was therefore decided to call on an exorcist”, continues the storyteller, specifying that very precise writings, attesting to her intervention, have been found and preserved.
The man thus purifies the walls of the convent, unbewitches Antoinette and allows the temptress, absolved by her sisters, to reach paradise.
But do 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 alleys of the cloister...
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