Alix Le Clerc

Entry by Marie-Claire Tihon, 2007.

Alix Le Clerc was born on 2nd February, 1576 in Remiremont, a town in the Duchy of Lorraine which was known for its noble chapter of secular canonesses, and was a prominent social center. Little is known about her parents. Her father, Jean, was a merchant who later became an officer of the court, and her mother was called Anne. She was an intelligent and beautiful young woman who loved to dance and to surround herself with friends, but even as an adolescent she felt ‘a very sad soul amongst all the vanities’. The family moved to Hymont, where Alix felt out of place again, before deciding to convert. Seizing the moment, she then decided to seek ‘all that she will know is more pleasing to God, when it is time to die’. At that time, she also conceived the idea of a new religious congregation. She said, ‘Each time I prayed to God, it would come to my mind there should be a new place to practice all the good possible.’ She confided in Pierre Fourier, who was a pioneer of the Catholic Reformation and priest at Mattaincourt, as well as a pedagogy innovator, with great epistolary talent. Alix managed to convince him to let her and four companions join the consecrated life, on 25 December 1597. Fourier, for his part, was convinced that Christian education could transform families and society as a whole, and sought the means to provide education for girls from poor backgrounds so as to save them from ignorance and poverty. This desire for social reform, alongside Alix’s verve and spirit, would eventually give birth to the Notre-Dame congregation. The women entering this religious order were called upon to live as a community and to recite the Divine Office. However, their chief apostolic mission was to provide free education for girls, ‘both rich and poor alike’; as exemplary ‘female apostles’, they were responsible for teaching these girls how ‘to live, and to live well’. Their curriculum included catechism, learning to read and write, and learning a trade. A remarkable organizer, Alix helped to lay the foundations of Poussay in 1598, Mattaincourt in 1599, Saint-Mihiel in 1602, Nancy in 1603, Pont-à-Mousson in 1604, Verdun in 1612, and Châlons in 1613. As Mother Superior of the religious community in Nancy, she maintained an excellent relationship with the court of Lorraine. The rules of cloistered life, as enforced by Rome, meant that monasteries were built well away from their affiliated schools, namely boarding schools for the privileged students and free day schools for all the rest. In collaboration with Fourier, Alix refined the constitutions which had been approved in 1617 and then developed by their founder in 1640. Alix was behind the adoption of the order of Saint Augustine, an order which she deemed more suitable for an apostolic congregation than that of Saint Benoît. A visionary animated by a ‘burning desire’ for God and for her neighbours, Alix Le Clerc wrote the story of her spiritual journey at the request of her confessor in 1618. In her autobiographical tale, she shows herself to be a true mystic who is both energetic and tender, and who has overcome the challenges of her overwhelming spiritual experiences. Her devotion to Mary, and veneration of the Divine Infant, her respect served to nourish and strengthen her commitment as a teacher: ‘Zeal for instruction is at the centre of my vocation’. Alix died on 9th January 1622 without ever knowing the full outcome of her religious efforts. Rome took thirty years to ratify the project of the congregation, which brought together contemplation and action, notions then judged to be incompatible (1628). If, due to the Roman demands which imposed cloistered life on nuns, the Notre-Dame sisters were not able to fully develop their village schools, they did remain faithful to their original project through the addition of free classes for day pupils to their existing boarding schools. Alix Le Clerc is recognized in Lorraine as the leading female figure in Catholic reform. Her actions in support of the education of girls attracted the attention of educational historians who have viewed her as a precursor to Jules Ferry. Today, attempts are being made to define the the unique nature of her role as a female, hitherto overshadowed by Pierre Fourier. She was beatified on 4 May 1947 and remains a spiritual reference point for her congregation. She has also become something of a cult figure in Nancy where she was buried. (translated by Cécile Letourneur & Adrienne Bartlett)

Works

- 1618 : Relation autobiographique -- suivie de Notes des cahiers, éd. Marie-Claire Tihon et Paule Sagot, Paris, Cerf, «Sagesses chrétiennes», 2004.
- La Vie de la vénérable mère Alix Le Clerc... contenant la relation d’icelle... par les supérieure et religieuses du premier monastère de la congrégation à Nancy, Nancy, Les Charlots imprimeurs, 1666 (réécriture de la Relation autobiographique, avec de nombreuses variantes).
- Écrits spirituels de la bienheureuse Alix Le Clerc, éd. Madeleine Cord’homme, sl, Publication Congrégation Notre-Dame, 1968.

Selected bibliography

- [Mère Louis de Gonzague], Alix Le Clerc, dite en religion Mère Thérèse de Jésus, fondatrice de la congrégation de Notre-Dame, Liège, sn, 1889.
- Rappley, Elizabeth, Les Dévotes. Les femmes et l’Église en France au XVIIe siècle, Paris, Bellarmin, 1995, p.94-111.
- Remiremont, A. de, Vie d’Alix Le Clerc, Paris, Procure généralice de la Congrégation Notre-Dame, 1946.
- Renard, Edmond, La Mère Alix Le Clerc, Paris, J. de Gigord, 1935.
- Tihon, Marie-Claire, La Bienheureuse Alix Le Clerc, Paris, Cerf, «Épiphanie», 2004.

Selected bibliography of images

- 1622 : Claude Deruet, Portrait d’Alix (huile sur toile, 46, 5 x 56,5 cm), Nancy, Couvent des Soeurs de Notre-Dame.
- 1784 : Charles Munier, Saint Pierre Fourier faisant hommage à la Vierge de son ordre de religieuses, (huile sur toile, 3,10 x 2, 25 m), Épinal, basilique Saint-Maurice.
- 1956 : Atelier Benoit (Nancy), Alix en pied, tenant le berceau et la tige d’avoine, Alix et deux petites filles (vitrail), Remiremont, église de Saint-Étienne-lès-Remiremont -- Marie-Claire Tihon,La Bienheureuse... voir supra, Choix bibliographique, ill. hors texte.

Reception

- «Sans cesse, on voit s’affirmer les deux caractères: Alix va de l’avant, insiste pour les réalisations rapides, Pierre Fourier déclare qu’il ne faut pas “s’accommoder aux empressements”. Alix est attachée de toute son âme à l’oeuvre qui est celle de sa vie; Pierre Fourier, qui en a conçu l’idée, qui de tout son vaste esprit, en voit le prix et mesure la portée, temporise pourtant, remet les décisions, semble trouver que l’épreuve n’a jamais été menée assez loin, ni la prière continuée avec assez d’insistance; à tel jour, on dirait qu’il est prêt à tout abandonner, et Alix paraît alors, de sa volonté décidée, avoir seule sauvé l’avenir. Mais est-on sûr que ce n’est pas là ce qu’attendait et voulait au fond provoquer, avec ses silences et ses apparentes retraites, cet habile homme, aussi habile au traitement spirituel des consciences féminines qu’il se montra entendu aux jeux déliés de la diplomatie?» (Mgr Blanchet, Panégyrique de la bienheureuse Alix Le Clerc, Bruxelles, Van Vinckeroy, 1947)
- «Alix a connu l’impression très humaine de l’échec et surmonté la tentation de découragement. Sa liberté intérieure apparaît dans sa manière d’aborder les obstacles qui viennent de sa famille, de l’entourage, de nombreux ecclésiastiques, de la congrégation elle-même. Elle les évoque discrètement ou fortement, mais sans amertume.» (Paule Sagot, «Commentaire de la Relation autobiographique», dans Alix Le Clerc, Relation autobiographique..., voir supra, oeuvres, p.85)
- «La première chose qui m’a frappée comme féministe, en lisant et relisant la Relationfut de découvrir: d’une part, combien Alix a été une femmes troublée par des démons, des craintes et des scrupules, sans parler de fréquents évanouissements, visions et cauchemars; mais d’autre part, combien elle a été volontaire, courageuse, tenace, créative et humble. Ce double aspect de sa nature, parfois contradictoire et pleine d’ambiguïtés, est une marque de sa riche personnalité.» (témoignage de Soeur Ivone Gebara (Brésil), CND, 114, Publications de la Congrégation Notre-Dame, 2004)
- «Si l’angoisse et le scrupule menacent constamment de mutiler son âme, ils ne pétrifient pas pour autant son élan et son obstination. Alix fait partie de ces “folles de Dieu”, amoureusement agissante, en dépit de la “nuit” et d’une libido -“ce feu de la rébellion de la chair si fort allumé”- sans doute maladroitement refoulée. À la fois candide et lucide, Alix comprend par l’étrange pouvoir d’un nouveau songe, qu’elle est appelée à bâtir en Église “une nouvelle maison de filles”. Désormais son destin ne s’enroule plus que sur elle seule; il en implique des milliers d’autres.» (Michel Fiévet, «Alix le Clerc, entre terre et ciel», dans L’Invention de l’école des filles, Paris, 2006, p.80)