Esclarmonde of Foix

Esclarmonde de Foix (* around 1151, † 1215 ) was a prominent member of the medieval sect of the Cathars in France in the 13th century. Your Occitan name means "light of the world" ( French: éclair du monde ).

Biography

She was a daughter of Count Roger Bernard I of Foix and his wife Cecile of Beziers, who came from the house Trencavel. Her brother was Count Raymond Roger of Foix. She was married to the Seigneur de l' Isle Jourdain II -Jourdain, with whom she had several children.

After the death of her husband in 1200 to Esclarmonde the Cathar faith community joined, which was classified by the official Catholic Church as heretical sect. Along with her ​​sister, Philippa de Montcada, she operated in the mountains of the Pyrenees at Dun (Ariège ) is a Catholic Aryan Convention on the education of young girls. Based on this model were soon operating in the whole region of Languedoc hospitals and schools through the Cathar Church, which earned her a correspondingly large inlet of the population. In 1204 she received Fanjeaux from Katharerbischof of Toulouse, Guilhabert de Castres, the Consolamentum, making them into the community of Perfectas ( perfection ) was added. On the Katharerkonzil of Mirepoix in 1206 she spoke in anticipation of a military conflict with the Catholic Church for the expansion of the castle Montsegur from.

In 1207, she was next to Benoît de Termes, a spokeswoman of the Cathars in the last peaceful dispute with the Catholic Church in Pamiers. When she got there the word, she was stopped by Domingo de Guzmán silenced and relegated to a spinning, as it is not anstehe her as a woman to talk to clerics in a theological dispute. This offensive objection, however, had contributed to the negative outcome of the dispute; the following year was instituted by Pope Innocent III. the Albigensian Crusade was proclaimed.

Others

From the German Otto Rahn esoteric Esclarmonde was identified as the historical model of Gralshüterin " Repanse de Schoye " from Eschenbach's " Parzival ", which included to protect him from the legions of Lucifer the Grail in the mountain of Munsalvaesche ( Montsegur ). Today, she is a saint of the Gnostics, who operate including the " Order of the Holy Esclarmonde ". The University of Winnipeg in Canada offers the " Esclamonde de Foix Memorial Travel Scholarship " to her memory.