Venerable Thérèse Couderc

Thérèse Couderc (1 February 1805 – 26 September 1885) - born Marie-Victoire Couderc - was a French religious sister and the co-founder of the Sisters of the Cenacle. Couderc underwent humiliations during her time as a sister 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. After her death, she left a series of spiritual writings. Pope Paul VI canonised her in 1970. Marie-Victoire Couderc was born in 1805 in Le Mas as the fourth of twelve children to farmers 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 sons and two daughters; Couderc was the elder one. In her childhood she attended Mass twice a week. She received her First Communion in 1815. In 1822 her parents sent her to a boarding school at Vans and she remained there until in Lent 1825 when her father wanted her to attend a school in their local area. In 1825, he entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Saint Regis, a teaching congregation in Lalouvesc. Couderc, who took the religious name Thérèse, made her the perpetual vows on 6 January 1837. Couderc and two other sisters were sent to care for female pilgrims at a hostel at the shrine of St. John Francis Regis in Lalouvesc. In 1826, Couderc co-founded the Sisters of the Cenacle with a priest, Jean-Pierre Etienne Terme, and became their superior in 1828. Desirous to provide women a place for recollection in solitude, prayer, and meditation, they resolved to open houses where women could make retreat. When a motherhouse was established, Couderc became superior general. In 1828, Jean-Pierre Etienne Terme began to hold Ignatian retreats for the sisters. He continued to do so until his death in December 1834.