Ventra, Eugene

Pierre Michel Eugene Ventra was born in 1807 in Bayeux (Normandy) into a family of poor and pious parents. He received only primary education, but was endowed with excellent intelligence and ingenuity from nature. He worked as an apprentice at the tailor and trader, but did not succeed. Settled in debt, he became a defendant in a criminal case on the illegal census of property, for which he was sentenced to 15 days. After his release, he opened a cafe in Bayeux. In 1839 he became a team leader at a cardboard box factory in Tilly-sur-Sault . In the same year, Ventra met with a mysterious man - a notary swindler Ferdinan Geoffroi ( French: Ferdinand Geoffroi ), who recognized the adventurist Karl Wilhelieu Naundorf the legitimate French king Louis XVII and believed in the advent of the "Golden Age" with the rise to power of Louis.

Ventra became a follower of Naundorf and began to receive some supernatural instructions from above that he would have to lead a coup in the history of France and the world. So, he claimed that the archangel Michael, the Blessed Virgin Mary and Joseph appeared to him, who ordered Ventra to preach a new gospel - “The Work of Mercy”. Ventra was to assemble a group of followers who would assist him in fulfilling the task of saving the world from disaster and establishing a new Kingdom of God. After the first vision, he founded an oratorio at the factory in Tiyi, in which he kept the "cachets" - supposedly sent to him by people who wanted to save him from some evil-minded people. "Wafers" showed signs of miraculous bleeding of real blood, as Ventra said.

Venter's oratory and charisma made many clergy stand on his side: among them were Abbot Charvoz ( Fr. Abbé Charvoz ) and a healer from Mont-Louis ( Fr. Curé de Mont-Louis ). Charvo became the ideologist of the movement and its main mouthpiece of propaganda, but Charvo's zeal led to a number of incidents. Ventra did not want to publicize the miracle with bleeding “wafers,” but Charvo still received, under oath from several people, evidence that they had seen these bleeding wafers (among them were doctors who confirmed the presence of real human blood in them). Charvo, inspired by this news, went to print a brochure about Ventra and his miracles (a total of 6 thousand such copies were made).

On November 8, 1841, the bishop of Bayeux condemned Charvo's pamphlet as heretical, and the movement of the Naundorfists was regarded as occult and mystical. In August 1841, Ventra and Geoffrey were still arrested: they were charged with stealing money from two women: 3,000 francs were stolen from a certain Garnier ( French Garnier ), 800 francs from Cecile de Cassini ( French Cecini ) . The case was fabricated to terminate Ventra. Despite the fact that all the victims testified in defense of the Ventre who robbed them, the court sentenced the impostor to five years of imprisonment, and Geoffrey to two. The appeal did not help. On October 8, 1843, Pope Gregory XVI condemned the Ventra sect.

The convicted Ventra was an exemplary prisoner and enjoyed a number of privileges: so he could meet with his associates. However, the pressure of the church led to the collapse of the movement. In 1848, after a wave of revolutions in Europe, Ventra left France and returned only in 1866. He died in 1875. Occultist Joseph-Antoine Bullian tried unsuccessfully to lead his movement.

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