Stigmata, Prophecies, and Politics: Louise Lateau in the German and Belgian Culture Wars of the Late Nineteenth Century

Abstract

This article focuses on the political meaning and transnational appeal of the Belgian stigmatic Louise Lateau. It examines the reception and construction of her as a Catholic celebrity in the late nineteenth century and how these changed over time and space. For although Louise Lateau seems to have been a point of reference for European Catholics, this does not mean that her image, or what she represented to the faithful, was the same in the various countries or even within one country. Focus is on her appeal in Belgium, her home country, and in Germany where she seems to have had a special meaning for the beleaguered Catholics. In these countries Louise figured as a symbol of “Catholicism” to the faithful and their anti‐Catholic opponents. In a later phase of her life however, her public image changed as she got caught up in intra‐Catholic battles and turned into the prophetic type of mystic. She became a point of tension between the liberal and ultramontane Catholics.

Religiões e modernidades: cristianismos, secularização e novas espiritualidades

“…Na Itália, místicas leigas como Anna Maria Taigi e Palma Matarelli profetizaram a eleição do papa Pio IX e as consequências devastadoras das guerras cultuais para os católicos (MACLAREN, 2012;MULTON, 2003). Na Bélgica e na Alemanha, a estigmata Louise Lateau se tors u m á r i o nou emblemática pela sua oposição ao Kulturkampf ( VAN OSSELAER, 2018). Na França, no início da Terceira República, Berguille Bergadieu e Marie-Julie Jahenny anunciaram o retorno da monarquia e a ascensão do Conde de Chambord (Henrique V), pretendente legitimista ao trono.…”

Misticismo nos tribunais europeus do século XIX

“…Na Itália, místicas leigas como Anna Maria Taigi e Palma Matarelli profetizaram a eleição do papa Pio IX e as consequências devastadoras das guerras cultuais para os católicos (MACLAREN, 2012;MULTON, 2003). Na Bélgica e na Alemanha, a estigmata Louise Lateau se tor-nou emblemática pela sua oposição ao Kulturkampf ( VAN OSSELAER, 2018). Na França, no início da Terceira República, Berguille Bergadieu e Marie-Julie Jahenny anunciaram o retorno da monarquia e a ascensão do Conde de Chambord (Henrique V), pretendente legitimista ao trono.…”

Stigmatics, Politics and the Law

“…She was often paired with Paul Majunke, who, like Louis Veuillot in Tamisier's case, was depicted as a blind devotee and "manager." 93 Michael O'Sullivan has recently analysed such depictions in the twentieth century, looking at how Therese Neumann, and the Konnersreuth circle in general, were attacked in the communist and the anticlerical social democratic press "to advocate for issues such as the separation of church and state and to embarrass Catholic political elites"94 -thus, with similar political intentions as in the nineteenth-century cases. Topics appearing in the caricatures and satirical texts of the above-mentioned stigmatics, such as the exploitation of stigmata and sanctity, or the mocking of inedia, also appeared in the case of Neumann and the Konnersreuth circle.95 Thus, even in different times and national contexts, and facing distinct opponents of Catholicism, we find similarities in the anticlerical motifs used to denigrate stigmatics and their supporters.…”