Esclarmonde
was born sometime after 1151. Her name means " Light
of the World " in Occitan.
She was nicknamed "The Great Esclarmonde" (La
grande Esclarmonde).
She was the daughter of Roger Bernard I, Count of Foix and Cécile Trencavel. She was therefore sister to Raymond-Roger Count of Foix. She married Jourdain de l'Isle-Jourdain, Seigneur de l'Isle-Jourdain. Their children included Bernard who later inherited the County of Foix, Guillaumette, Olive, Othon de Terride and Bertrand, Baron de Launac.
She was widowed in October 1200, and from this time turned openly to the Cathar Church. In 1204 she received the consolamentum from the hands of the Cathar Bishop Guilhabert de Castres, so becoming a Parfaite, a member of the Cathar Elect. The ceremony, at which three other great noblewomen (Aude de Fanjeaux, Faye de Durfort, and Raymonde de Saint-Germain) also received the consolamentum, took place at Fanjeaux in the presence of her brother Raymond-Roger Count of Foix. From this time on she would become a champion of the Cathar faith.
She took up residence in Pamiers and it is thought that
she was responsible for the decision to refortify the Castle
at Montségur (
Montsegùr)
in preparation for the likely assaults by the French Catholic
Crusaders. In 1207 she took part in (and probably organised)
the Colloquy of Pamiers (also called the Colloquy of Montreal)
the last public debate between the Cathars and the Roman
Catholic Church whose representatives were led by Dominic
Guzman (later Saint Dominic). It was at this debate
that Esclarmonde famously tried to speak, only to be admonished
by a representative of the Roman Church: "go to your
spinning madam. It is not proper for you to speak in a debate
of this sort". The churchman's faux pas, as obvious
to an educated Occitan audience as it is to most people
today, was not at all obvious to Saint Dominic and his supporters.
The Catholic church's treatment of such a prestigious figure
as Esclarmonde could only have had the opposite effect to
that intended, yet up until the twenty first century the
Church never seems to have grasped why their representatives
lost in these debates so comprehensively or so consistently.
The following year, 1208, despairing of success through peaceful means, Innocent III would launch the Albigensian Crusade.
Esclarmonde de Foix and her sister-in-law Philippa jointly ran a House for Parfaites at Dun in the Pyrénées,. A sort of prototype convent, it functioned as a school for the education of girls and as a sort of retirement home for aged Parfaites.
Esclarmonde is credited with opening a number of hospitals, schools and Cathar convents - something the Roman Church had not done previously, but started to do later as part of its concerted hearts and minds campaign. Dominic Guzman's first Dominican friary can still be seen at Prouille, within sight of Fanjeaux in the Languedoc.
Esclarmonde of Foix has become become something of a role model for feminists, and her name - almost forgotten for seven hundred years - is becoming ever more popular. A quick web search will reveal a range of sites from Esclarmonde de Foix fan clubs to an "Esclarmonde de Foix Memorial Travel Scholarship" at the University of Winnipeg. According to at least one Gnostic Church she was an Cathar Archdeaconess in life and is now a saint.
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