Temple antoiniste

The Temple antoiniste stands in Nice's Saint Maurice quarter, between the Ray district and Pasteur. Neo-Roman and neo-Gothic forms meet in its architecture, and you can read the date of its consecration in the tympanum above the entrance. Behind its doors, a small community practises a faith born in Belgium.

Louis Antoine, a miner born in 1846, first drew close to Catholicism and then to spiritualism, becoming a medium. He founded a spiritualist group called Les Vignerons du Seigneur, the Lord's Vine Growers. His healing drew growing crowds, and his followers came to call him Le Père, the Father. After legal trouble he destroyed his early writings and taught a new doctrine of faith, selflessness and help for others. The Belgian government recognised the Antoinist movement as a public utility with a religious character in 1922. Mère consecrated this building on 15 October 1931, the third house of prayer she dedicated that year after two in Belgium.

Juliette Vittart, a member of Nice's Society for Psychic Sciences, brought the faith across southeastern France and founded the local community. Her story is told in the movement's own literature. Inside, a reading panel carries the teachings of Le Père. Healing sessions called the opération au nom du père take place through the week. The faith aims to heal and console through prayer rather than to win converts. It asks for no money and takes no side in politics, and the community welcomes visitors without recruiting them. Its doctrine treats matter as an appearance, accepts reincarnation, and lets each person progress at an individual pace. When the building was consecrated, vegetable gardens and orchards pressed against its walls. The city has grown close around them in the decades since.