Case file · High strangeness
The convulsionaries of Saint-Médard
From 1731, crowds at the tomb of the Jansenist deacon François de Pâris in Saint-Médard cemetery, Paris, fell into convulsions and reported cures; some asked to be struck with logs or swords.
1731 CE · 48.84, 2.35 · status: official
The account
The king closed the cemetery in January 1732; a wit posted: 'By order of the king, God is forbidden to work miracles here'. The movement continued underground for decades.
The researched reading
Collective trance and cures in a charged religious and political fight. The convulsions were real, and their cause was psychological.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Perception, memory or mind | 40% | The convulsions spread through crowds at the tomb like other episodes of mass psychogenic illness. Many cures involved paralysis, blindness or pain of the kind that can lift with intense emotion and expectation. The violent blows (secours) were endured in trance. |
| A cultural story | 30% | The miracles were part of the Jansenist struggle against the papal bull Unigenitus and the crown. Each cure was a political argument, which shaped how it was told and recorded. |
| Undetermined | 15% | The share a generic explanation had beyond what has been shown for this case: it fits many cases like this one, but has not been demonstrated for this one. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 8% | Some later performances of the secours were theatrical, and police reports noted staging. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 3% | Some cures were natural remissions credited to the deacon. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 3% | Carré de Montgeron documented cures with doctors’ statements, but they were collected by a partisan in a polemic. |
| Something in the surroundings | 1% | Not relevant. |
Official position: The crown closed the cemetery in 1732 and treated the convulsions as disorder; the Church did not accept the miracles.