The convulsionaries of Saint-Médard.

— Notice — François Pâris, famous deacon of Paris, who died in 1727, at 37 years of age, was the eldest son of a counselor of the Parliament, whom he was naturally to succeed in the office. He preferred, however, to embrace the ecclesiastical career. After the death of his father he left the property to his brother and, for some time, taught catechism in the parish of Saint-Côme, taking charge of the direction of the clerics and giving them conferences. The Cardinal de Noailles, to whose cause he was attached, wished to appoint him curé of that parish, but an unforeseen obstacle arose. The abbé Pâris consecrated himself entirely to retreat. After having tried various hermitages, he confined himself to a house in the suburb of Saint-Marcel. There he gave himself without reserve to prayer, to the most rigorous practices of penitence, and to manual labor. He made stockings for the poor, whom he regarded as his brothers; he died in this refuge. The abbé Pâris had adhered to the appeal against the bull Unigenitus, lodged by the four bishops; he had renewed his appeal in 1720. Thus, he must have been described differently by the opposing parties. Before making stockings he produced very mediocre books. From him we possess explanations on the epistles of Saint Paul to the Romans and to the Galatians, and an analysis of the epistle to the Hebrews, which few people read.

His brother having had a tomb erected for him in the little cemetery of Saint-Médard, the poor who had been succored by the pious deacon, some rich whom he had edified, and some women whom he had instructed went there, in order to offer prayers. There were cures that seemed marvelous and convulsions that were considered dangerous and ridiculous. The authority found itself at last obliged to put a stop to this spectacle, ordering the closing of the cemetery on the 27th of January 1732. Then the same enthusiasts went to provoke their convulsions in private houses. In the opinion of many people, the tomb of the deacon Pâris was the tomb of Jansenism. But some persons thought they saw the finger of God, becoming more attached to a sect capable of producing such marvels. There are different histories of this deacon, of whom perhaps they would never have spoken had they not wished to transform him into a thaumaturge. Among the strange phenomena presented by the Convulsionaries of Saint-Médard are cited:

The faculty of resisting blows so terrible that the bodies ought to have been crushed;

That of speaking unknown or forgotten languages;

An extraordinary unfolding of the intelligence: the most ignorant among them improvised discourses on grace, the ills of the church, the end of the world, etc.;

The faculty of reading thought;

Put in contact with the sick, they presented pains in the same place as those who consulted them; nothing more frequent than to hear them predict various abnormal phenomena that were to occur in the course of their maladies.