Witchcraft in Sarthe? “The devil was behind every misfortune”

It was at the start of the 2023 school year that Nicolas Fernand released his first book on a double crime in Semur-En-Vallon, “Le mystère de la Croix-Mignon”, published by Éditions de l’Étrave. The journalist from Maine Libre is back in June 2024 with a second book, “Les ensorcelés de Saint-Maixent”, also published by Éditions de l’Étrave.

Why this second work?

Nicolas Fernand: During dedications for the Mystère de la Croix-Mignon, I was told about this affair which took place not far from Semur-en-Vallon, in Saint-Maixent. This obviously piqued my curiosity. I dove into the archives.

A murder, too?

Yes, on a modest farm where the parents and two children live, son Marcel and daughter Ida. Calves and cows die for no reason. The father, Eugène Voielé, is trampled by a mare who is nevertheless adorable. Ida believes in the devil. Hard as iron. At a very young age, she already has the reputation of a “witch”. On December 13, 1957, a disenchanter from Luart, François Péniguel, is brought to the Binetières, who advises putting salt everywhere, and even wearing it. The next day, another calf dies. Ida – then married to the farm hand, and mother of a 4-year-old boy – decides to go further: salt must be eaten. And organizes a real sabbath in the kitchen, fills the little one’s mouth with salt, puts it in the throat of her brother… who will die.

Without revealing everything, what will be the outcome?

Ida is charged with murder and ill-treatment. Then the investigation will expand. The first to be tried will be the disenchanter of Luart, already convicted of illegal practice of medicine. Then in January 1959 it will be Ida’s trial. The day before, her mother hangs herself… Ida is tried in one afternoon to five years in prison, in front of a packed room and an audience of national media. It is called the (judicial) case of the decade.

What interested you in this case?

The handling of the case, the way the investigators worked, the journalists’ access to absolutely everything, in the absence of a presumption of innocence… It also gave rise, at the time, to a ten-part investigation in Le Maine Libre on witchcraft in Sarthe where we realize that the devil is behind every misfortune. The practice was really widespread. And it is undoubtedly still alive, and not only in the countryside.

Do you think this case still has resonance today?

In this corner of Sarthe, yes. I have been there several times, there are those who speak and those who remain silent. The facts are ultimately still quite recent. And then I met the teacher who had Ida’s son in her class, at the Lamnay school. Anne-Marie Gillet arrived in Sarthe, discovered this story and became interested in it.

We go well beyond December 14, 1957…

Thanks to the notebooks of this teacher in which she recorded everything, I was able to trace Ida’s journey up to the 1980s, who – separated from her husband after the tragedy – had rebuilt her life in Mayenne where she died in 2007.

Do you already have another work in mind?

A little more than in mind: I have been working for several months on another news item. Still in Sarthe.

The bewitched of Saint-Maixent, the terrible affair of the cursed salt and other occult beliefs in Sarthe, 160 pages, €16, ed. de l’Etrave.