Poitiers has more than its share of pilgrimage sites, where saints have been said to perform miracles: the shrines of Saint-Hilaire and Sainte Radegonde have been popular for over a thousand years. But there was another place in Poitiers where miracles occurred daily – or, perhaps, we should say nightly: a Court of Miracles. Here the blind recovered their sight, the crippled walked, the diseased were cured and the lame jumped, and missing limbs reappeared – miraculously. Courts of Miracles were present in many cities across France – most famously Paris, as memorably depicted in Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. These courts may have existed for centuries, but the first known references to them are found in the mid-17th century. This was a time, under the centralizing policies of kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, of significant social dislocation. Resources were drained from countryside to cities, and from peasants and laborers to the nobility – so that the rich could be magnificently attired at the royal court, and so attain the royal favors around which the system revolved. The number of unemployed and destitute grew in the countryside, and many came to the cities to seek survival – often by begging. Since those with a clear handicap that evoked sympathy could expect more alms, a number of beggars faked terrible injuries and diseases. At least fifteen different creative roles can be attested among the denizens of the Court when they went into the city streets. By the time they came back to their homes in the city’s slums, they dropped their characters. If they came together in sufficient numbers in a slum, then the royal archers would avoid the area, leaving them in peace.
In Poitiers, the Cour des Miracles was situated in the Rue Bourcani, along the walls of the old Roman Arena. Cleared out of the Court of Miracles by the 19th century, the Rue Bourcani retained some of its illicit past into the early 20th Century. It was known for several decades as a street for “special rendez-vous” for gentlemen of good society looking for “gallant company.” By complete coincidence, the Order of Penitent Daughters of Saint Magdalene was not far away. For better or for worse, the Rue Bourcani today has become quite respectable. Perhaps that is a miracle.
