Marie-Thérèse Vauzou (August 10, 1825 – November 3, 1907) was a French

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

who is known as having been the Mistress of Novices and later Mother Superior at the

Sisters of Charity of Nevers The Sisters of Charity of Nevers (French: ''Congrégation des Sœurs de la Charité de Nevers''), also known as Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction, is a Catholic convent founded in 1680 in Nevers, Nièvre department, France, at the inst ...

, during the time that

Bernadette Soubirous Bernadette Soubirous (; ; oc, Bernadeta Sobirós ; 7 January 184416 April 1879), also known as Saint Bernadette of Lourdes, was the firstborn daughter of a miller from Lourdes (''Lorda'' in Occitan), in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées in ...

was alive.

Biography

She was born in

Collonges-la-Rouge Collonges-la-Rouge (, literally ''Collonges the Red''; oc, Colonjas) is a commune in the Corrèze department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of France. History The monks of Charroux Abbey founded a priory in the 8th century which attracted ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

; her father was a

notary A notary is a person authorised to perform acts in legal affairs, in particular witnessing signatures on documents. The form that the notarial profession takes varies with local legal systems. A notary, while a legal professional, is disti ...

. She rose through the ranks of the Saint Gildard Convent and in 1861 became Mistress of Novices. A few years later, Marie-Bernard "Bernadette" Soubirous began to visit stating she was interested in becoming a

postulant A postulant (from la, postulare, to ask) was originally one who makes a request or demand; hence, a candidate. The use of the term is now generally restricted to those asking for admission into a Christian monastery or a religious order for the pe ...

, a process she started in 1865. In 1858, Soubirous had become famous within the Catholic religion after having claimed she had visions of seeing the

Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...

. While Sister Vauzou supported Soubirous joining the convent and later admitted a certain fondness and acceptance of Soubirous's "charisma and beauty", Vauzou never fully believed her claims of visions and treated her poorly. She disagreed with the decision of Canonization for Soubirous after she died in 1879 at the age of 35. Vauzou became Mother Superior and she was forced to testify in front of religious officials about Soubirous in 1899. She told them that she knew Sister Bernadette better than most, having spent much time with her during her early years at the convent, and described her as vain and simple. She asked religious officials to wait until she was dead to begin the process of sainthood. Little is known about her final years, but it is known Vauzou struggled internally with her feelings about Bernadette and went to visit a monk at the

Fontfroide Abbey Fontfroide Abbey (french: Abbaye Sainte-Marie de Fontfroide; la, Fons frigidus) is a former Cistercian monastery in France, situated 15 kilometers south-west of Narbonne near to the Spanish border. It was founded in 1093 by Aimery I, Visc ...

, who helped her regain spiritual peace following Bernadette's death. When Vauzou died in 1907, investigations began in 1909 and Bernadette was officially canonized in 1933. Sister Vauzou is buried on the grounds of the

motherhouse A motherhouse is the principal house or community for a religious institute A religious institute is a type of institute of consecrated life in the Catholic Church whose members take religious vows and lead a life in community with fellow memb ...

in Nevers.

Portrayal in media

Sister Vauzou was portrayed by English actress Gladys Cooper in the 1943 film '' The Song of Bernadette'', which was based on

Franz Werfel Franz Viktor Werfel (; 10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945) was an Austrian- Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of ''The For ...

's 1941 novel of the same name. Cooper was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. In the 1946 Broadway play of the same name, Sister Vauzou was portrayed by actress Jean Mann.The Song of Bernadette at Playbill Vault
accessed 8-1-2015

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vauzous, Marie Therese 1825 births 1907 deaths 20th-century French nuns Sisters of Charity of Nevers 19th-century French nuns