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 This fortified cave on the other side of the Ariège river was long used as a refuge and a shelter for the persecuted Cathars of Sabarthes. After the fall of Montségur, as soon as the crusading armies had done their work, the Dominican Inquisition started acting ruthlessly in the area. The Sabarthes lived through the cruelest period of its history, while it was subject to the refined violence of the Inquisition that restlessly searched, tracked, deported, scorched and burned the last faithful of the Church of Love. In 1295, Pierre Authié, the Cathar bishop of Bouan, had to flee to Lombardy. He came back to Bouan in 1299 and carried on his ministry until 1309, evading the guiles of the Inquisition. He was burned in Toulouse.
The Church of Bouan welcomed for a long time the last Cathar believers.
Healing – Consolation
‘Christ has appeared to the Friends of God, especially as a celestial doctor.’
‘He was not sacrified, immolated to the eternal justice for the salvation of men, but he was the healer who brought the liberating Truth to the world.’
‘The Cathar Good Men were spiritual therapists, like their divine master; the Churches, the Cathar ‘Houses’ (hostels), were hospitals for the soul.
From everywhere, crowds of pilgrims came to be cured from their moral illnesses….’
‘The caves, the cabins of the “Pure Ones” were those places that contained the sacred pools….’
‘The foreign visitors took part in the supper, received the bread and the wine and, utmost rite, the kiss of peace transmitting the Holy Spirit. They were going back home, “consoled”…’
The Holy Table,
the laying on of hands,
blessings,
consolation.
The Perfect Ones went through the countries to soothe the pains and bring ‘the beautiful Consolations of Bethlehem’.
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