Today, I am taking you to a French medieval town whose castles and walls hide a medieval secret.

Inspired by this town’s stunning architecture and history, I decided to share with you the tragic story of the Cathars, the mysterious people who lived here in the 12th century. 

The term Cathar Country (fr. Pays Cathare) is used to highlight the Cathar heritage and history of the region in which Catharism was traditionally the strongest. The area is centered around fortresses such as Montségur and Carcassonne.

The name of the Cathars comes from the Greek word “katharoi” which means “the pure ones” and that’s how these people referred to themselves. You may have heard this etymon in the word catharsis, which means purification, or the name Catherine, Katerina, and all of its forms.

The Cathars also used to call themselves “The Good Christians”, because they strictly followed the New Testament and they practiced Jesus’ teachings. 

So, according to Jesus’ words “If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also”, the Cathars literally practiced non-violence. Unfortunately, turning the other cheek cost them their lives.

The Catholic Church not only denounced their belief and religious practices but also persecuted them in the most horrible ways until they were finally eradicated by the Inquisition. 

So, you might ask yourself: Wait a second, if they’re pure, harmless and they’re all about peace, love, and rock’n’roll, (obviously they were the hippies of their time), why would the Catholic church want so much to get rid of them? 

From the beginning of his reign, Pope Innocent III attempted to end Catharism by sending missionaries and by persuading the local authorities to act against them. In 1209, he launched the Albigensian Crusade. The Crusade ended in 1229 with the defeat of the Cathars (the ones that turned their cheek).

If you love history and if you’re particularly interested in medieval times, you might have heard about another gnostic movement in southeastern Europe called Bogomilism (from the Slavic words ‘Bog’ which means God and ‘mil’ – dear, or ‘dear to God’).

Even though Catharism is a pure Western European/Latin Christian phenomenon, many theorists believe that the Cathars were influenced by the Bogomils, who were also persecuted by the church and had more or less the same beliefs. 

What did the Cathars believe in?

The Cathars believed in a dual world: they believed there is a good, spiritual world and an evil, physical reality. 

Everything visible, including the human body, belongs to the physical world.

Obviously, this belief was far from being accepted by the Catholic Church: the Cathars believed that humans can be stuck in a cycle of reincarnation, condemned to live on the corrupt Earth. This indeed sounds more like Buddhism and eastern philosophy.

Besides this, they were against materialism and rejected the use of the cross, because for them it was nothing more than a material instrument of torture.

Fun fact: the Cathars were vegetarians and feminists, which makes me think that if they lived in the 21st century, they’d be left-liberals.🤭

Unlike other religions, the Cathars considered women as equally capable of being spiritual leaders.

Many Cathars had to convert to Catholicism, even though some of them kept their Cathar cultural identity. 

The principal legacy of the Cathar movement is in the poems and songs of the Cathar troubadours, as part of the wider Occitan cultural heritage. The Occitan song Lo Boièr is particularly associated with Catharism.

Have you already heard about the Cathars? Let me know what is your impression of their story.

Stay tuned for more posts about their cultural heritage and beliefs.