History is messy. It’s rarely the clean-cut battle between good and evil we see in movies, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the case of Mother Joan of the Angels. If you’ve ever fallen down a rabbit hole of true crime or weird history, you’ve probably heard of the Loudun possessions. It was 1634. A small town in France went absolutely sideways. Nuns were screaming, barking like dogs, and contorting their bodies in ways that made people’s skin crawl. At the center of it all was Jeanne des Anges—Mother Joan—a superior of the Ursuline convent who basically became the most famous "possessed" woman in the world.
But here’s the thing. When you look at the actual records, it wasn't just about demons. It was about politics, repressed desire, and a very public execution that still haunts the French legal memory.
The Woman Behind the Possession
Jeanne de Belcier wasn't born a saint. Honestly, she wasn't even born into much luck. She was born in 1602 with a physical deformity—a curvature of the spine—which in the 17th century pretty much dictated your entire life path. If you weren't "marriage material" in the eyes of the nobility, you were headed for the convent. That’s just how it worked. She took the name Mother Joan of the Angels and eventually became the Prioress at Loudun.
She was smart. Sharp. Maybe a bit too intense for her own good.
She became obsessed with a local priest named Urbain Grandier. Now, Grandier was trouble. He was handsome, arrogant, and had a habit of making enemies with powerful people, including Cardinal Richelieu, who was basically the most powerful man in France at the time. Joan had never even met Grandier in person, but she wanted him to be the convent’s confessor. He said no.
Not long after that rejection, the "possessions" started.
What the Loudun Possessions Actually Looked Like
It started small. A few bumps in the night. A few sightings of ghosts. But then Mother Joan started having "fits." She claimed Grandier had sent demons—specifically ones named Asmodeus and Zabulon—to torment her.
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It wasn't just her, though. Soon, seventeen other nuns were doing it too. They were throwing themselves around, using foul language that would make a sailor blush, and accusing Grandier of witchcraft. You have to imagine the scene: a quiet convent turned into a literal circus. Thousands of people traveled from across Europe to watch the public exorcisms. It became a spectator sport.
People often ask: was she faking?
It’s a tough question. To a modern eye, it looks like a textbook case of mass hysteria or "conversion disorder." These women were living in a high-pressure, incredibly restrictive environment. They had no agency. Suddenly, by being "possessed," they could say anything they wanted. They could scream at their superiors. They could express sexual fantasies. They were, for the first time in their lives, the center of the world's attention.
The Political Hit Job
While the nuns were screaming, the state was plotting. Cardinal Richelieu wanted Grandier gone because the priest had written a stinging satire against him. The "possessions" of Mother Joan of the Angels provided the perfect legal excuse.
The trial was a sham.
Grandier was tortured—horribly—but he never confessed. It didn't matter. They found "devil's marks" on him (which were likely just moles or scars) and used the testimony of the "demons" speaking through Joan as evidence. Think about that for a second. The court accepted the word of a demon as a legal witness. In 1634, Urbain Grandier was burned at the stake.
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The Aftermath: Saint or Scammer?
You’d think once the "wizard" was dead, the possessions would stop. They didn't. In fact, Mother Joan’s symptoms got weirder.
She started showing signs of stigmata.
She claimed that the names of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and F. de Sales appeared spontaneously on her skin. Specifically on her left hand. Skeptics at the time—and there were many, even back then—pointed out that the letters looked suspiciously like they’d been drawn on with ink or scratched in. But the public ate it up. She became a living relic. She traveled to Paris, met the Queen of France, and was treated like a superstar.
Why We’re Still Talking About Her
There is a psychological depth to Mother Joan that goes beyond a simple "she was lying" narrative. In her own memoirs—which she wrote later under the direction of her Jesuit confessor, Jean-Joseph Surin—she describes a tortured inner life. Surin himself actually ended up succumbing to a sort of sympathetic madness while trying to "cure" her. He became convinced he was possessed too.
It’s a dark, cyclical story of how belief can reshape reality.
If you look at the works of Aldous Huxley, specifically The Devils of Loudun, he paints a picture of a woman trapped by her own biology and the social confines of her time. Later, the story was turned into a controversial film by Ken Russell called The Devils. The reason it sticks with us is that it touches on the terrifying power of "the crowd." When everyone agrees on a lie, the truth doesn't stand a chance.
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Misconceptions About the Loudun Case
Most people think this was just another Salem Witch Trial. It wasn't. Salem was about outcasts. Loudun was about the elite.
- The "Demons" were Political: The names the nuns shouted weren't just random; they were carefully curated to fit the theological and political anxieties of the 1630s.
- The Church wasn't a Monolith: A lot of high-ranking church officials thought the whole thing was a fraud. The Bishop of Bordeaux even tried to stop the exorcisms, but he was overruled by the King’s agents.
- Joan wasn't just a Villain: She was likely suffering from significant mental health issues compounded by a spinal deformity that caused her chronic pain and social isolation.
The Legacy of Mother Joan of the Angels
So, what do we do with a legacy like this? Joan died in 1665, still regarded by many as a holy woman, though history has been much harsher. She remains a case study in the intersection of religion and mass psychology.
When you look at Mother Joan of the Angels, you're looking at the danger of unchecked power. It’s a reminder that when we start looking for devils in our neighbors, we usually find exactly what we’re looking for—whether it’s there or not.
Practical Ways to Learn More
If you want to go deeper into the Loudun incident without getting bogged down in boring academic texts, there are a few specific places to look.
First, track down a copy of The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley. It’s non-fiction but reads like a psychological thriller. He breaks down the politics of the French court and the neurosis of the convent in a way that feels surprisingly modern.
Second, look into the work of Michel de Certeau. He was a Jesuit and a scholar who wrote The Possession at Loudun. He approaches it from a sociological perspective, looking at how the "speech" of the possessed women filled a gap in a society that was rapidly changing.
Finally, if you're ever in France, the town of Loudun still exists. You can visit the sites of the possessions, though the convent itself is mostly gone. Standing in the square where Grandier was burned puts the whole thing into a perspective that no book can quite match. It’s a quiet place now, which is a weird contrast to the screaming and smoke that defined it four centuries ago.
Understanding this history isn't just about trivia. It’s about recognizing the patterns of how scares start and how they end. Usually, they end in tragedy for the scapegoat and a complicated, messy fame for the accuser. Mother Joan got her fame, but at a cost that history is still calculating.