For years, they endured bullying, humiliation, and physical violence without telling anyone. In secret, behind the walls of their convent on the Montmartre hill, just steps from the iconic basilica that symbolizes Paris, the Benedictine nuns of the Sacré-Cœur were subjected to the “control” and “atmosphere of terror and suspicion” imposed by their prioress general, Mother Marie-Agnès.
A report, commissioned by the congregation itself in 2024 and published on Thursday, January 15, shed stark light on the cult-like abuses committed by the woman who reigned unchallenged over the Benedictine nuns for just over 40 years, until her death in 2016. It was only around 2023 that people truly began to speak out, despite two apostolic visits – one in 2004 and another in 2011-2012. The years passed without Roman or diocesan authorities ever imposing sanctions.
To carry out the investigation, the nuns, led by their current superior, Mother Marie-Elie Hancock, appointed Hervé Giaume, a former army corps general. Working with his team and using a detailed questionnaire distributed to both the 86 current members of the congregation and 28 former members, he produced the first independent report of its kind on a women’s congregation.
Across the report’s 142 pages, Giaume counted 1,489 incidents of violence and described a “clear deterioration in all areas”: physical, psychological, spiritual, and even financial. Isolated from their families, with whom they were rarely allowed to correspond, the nuns were required to practice true personality cult toward Mother Marie-Agnès. “We had to be like her, even physically,” one nun recounted. “This meant,” the file explained, “in particular a requirement for all the nuns to gain weight.”