The War of the Magicians: Part 1

Claiming to have received from the Virgin a revelation in which she ordered him to found a religious Society for the Reparation of Souls, Adèle wrote down the rules of the Society which also were dictated to her in a divine manner. In his journal Les Annales de la Sainteté au XIXe Siècle Boullan later explained that he tried “to offer to God a satisfaction or reparation – by special prayers and the physical or moral sufferings Christians accepted and even sought – in order to restore the balance that was distorted by the offenses against the divine majesty, committed by sinners who were not repentant”.

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With the approval of several senior prelates, the Society was installed at Bellevue Avenue in Sèvres, in the department of Seine-et-Oise. In fact, however, the community served only to conceal the amorous relationship between the abbot and sister Adèle. Soon, bizarre practices were recorded, with which Boullan tried to heal the nuns who where attacked by strange diabolical diseases. The abbot exorcised one of the sisters who was tormented by the Devil by spitting in her mouth; another had to drink his urine mixed with that of sister Chevalier, and a third was ordered to eat poultices made of faeces. Clerics asked abbot Boullan and sister Chevalier how they could reconcile – for money – the favour of the Blessed Virgin, and finally some very worldly women consulted them in matters of conscience. In 1860 he was reputed to be responsible for the disappearance of the child that was the fruit of his forbidden love for Adèle Chevalier. Some even said the child was sacrificed upon the altar.

Complaints were filed to the police and the bishop of Versailles, especially concerning the money Boullan made with his strange therapies. An investigation was opened against Father Boullan and sister Chevalier, who were accused of fraud and indecency. The Court of Versailles dismissed the latter, but sentenced Boullan and Chevalier to three years in prison on the first accusation, which Boullan served from 1861 to 1864 at Rouen.