COUDERC, MARIE VICTOIRE THÉRÈSE, BL.

Foundress of the Religious of the cenacle; b. Sablières (Ardèche), France, Feb. 1, 1805; d. Lyons, France, Sept. 26, 1885 (feast, Sept. 26). In 1825 Marie Victoire returned from boarding school at Vans to attend a mission in her parish given by Abbé Jean Terme, a diocesan priest who had founded a religious teaching congregation at Aps, and who acted as its director. Influenced by him, Marie Victoire entered this congregation in 1826, taking the name Thérèse.

In 1827, she was sent with two other sisters to La Louvesc to open a hostel for women pilgrims to the tomb of St. John Francis regis. This community developed into the Congregation of the Cenacle. Thérèse, who became superior in 1828, arranged to restrict the house to women who wished to make retreats following the spiritual exercises of St. ignatius of loyola. The novitiate was soon transferred to La Louvesc under Thérèse's direction. After Terme's death (1834), supervision of the institute was entrusted to the Jesuits who had a decisive influence in the congregation's early years.

In 1836 the bishop of Viviers approved the rules, but obliged the Cenacle Sisters to separate from the Sisters of St. John Francis Regis who were dedicated to teaching. Thérèse, superior of her congregation, pronounced her perpetual vows in 1837 and made a special act of consecration in which she abdicated her authority.

At the suggestion of François Renault, the Jesuit provincial, Mme. Gallet, a wealthy widow 20 years old, became superior 15 days after joining the congregation as a postulant, but she died shortly afterward, leaving her fortune to the institute. Confusion followed, because her heirs contested her will and the Cenacle's incompetent treasurer grossly misrepresented the financial situation, which discredited Thérèse in the eyes of the local bishop. Countess de La Villeurnoy was designated superior general and foundress in 1838, but was removed from office in 1839 after her incompetence brought the congregation to the verge of ruin.

From 1839 until her death in 1852, Mother Contenet was superior general. In her endeavor to attract members from higher social stations, she dismissed all but one of the sisters accepted by Thérèse. The superior general, who had no confidence in the ability of the foundress, denied her all part in the direction of the institute and assigned her to lowly posts designed to keep her apart from the community, even during recreation periods. Internal dissension resulted from the election of a superior general in 1852, and as a result, Mother Anaïs, the superior general, quit the congregation in 1855. Thérèse was named local superior for short periods at Tournon and La Louvesc (1856–57), and later served as guardian at La Louvesc, Lyons, and Montpellier. The self-effacing foundress spent her remaining years from 1874 at Fourvières. She was beatified Nov. 1, 1951.

Feast: Sept. 26.

Bibliography: e. surles, Surrender to the Spirit (New York 1951). h. perroy, A Great and Humble Soul: Mother Thérèse Couderc, tr. from French by J. J. Burke (pa. Westminster, Md.1960). a. combes, La Bienheureuse Thérèse Couderc (Paris 1956).

[t. f. casey]