Cyr: Catholic Masculinity and the Defence of Frère Flamidien

Abstract

Far from standing by passively while their Church was attacked as both emasculating and a refuge for sexual predators, French Catholics set out with determination to prove the innocence of Frère Flamidien. Their defence began on legal grounds. But in a curious parallel to the republican-led investigation, it soon entered the terrain of masculinity. What emerged was a complicated endeavour to affirm the masculine credentials of Catholicism as well as the figure at the centre of the scandal. For Catholics, a remarkable transformation was occurring as the agitated Flamidien became, through his months-long ordeal in prison, the embodiment of a distinctively religious brand of heroism.