Thérèse Couderc
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Saint Thérèse Couderc |
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| Religious | |
| Born |
1 February 1805 Mas de Sablières, Ardèche, First French Empire |
| Died | 26 September 1885 (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. 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.
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.
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. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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. 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.
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