Is The Jansenist Convulsionnaires of Saint-Medard a real miracle?

Common questions

Is The Jansenist Convulsionnaires of Saint-Medard real or fake?

Miracles Jar's verdict is Explained: it happened — nature explains it. It happened — and nature accounts for it. On the evidence, the record is well documented.

Has The Jansenist Convulsionnaires of Saint-Medard been explained?

The event appears to have happened, but a natural explanation accounts for it — the leading account is expectation, suggestion & the placebo response. It reads as remarkable rather than miraculous.

What is the evidence for The Jansenist Convulsionnaires of Saint-Medard?

Miracles Jar weighs 3 sources for this case. Points that support the claim: Hundreds of sworn depositions collected by Jansenist lawyers and sympathetic physicians documented specific cures with named witnesses; and Hostile witnesses (royal officials, anti-Jansenist clergy) also attested to extraordinary physical phenomena, reducing the bias from sympathetic reporting. Points that cut against it: The cemetery was closed by royal decree in January 1732 but the convulsions continued in private, and the practices escalated to extreme self-mortification and theatrical 'secours' (ritual beatings); and Hume's argument: no set of testimonial evidence can outweigh the uniform human experience against miracles; the best explanation is always mass delusion or fraud.

What is the natural explanation for The Jansenist Convulsionnaires of Saint-Medard?

The leading natural account is expectation, suggestion & the placebo response. Belief produces real, measurable change in the body. The relief can be genuine while the cause stays entirely natural. The full breakdown shows where that explanation holds — and where it stops.

When and where did The Jansenist Convulsionnaires of Saint-Medard happen?

It is said to have occurred 1727-1740s in Saint-Medard cemetery, Paris, France.