Les moines de Cimiez

Overview

Not real monks: «les (frères) moines de Cimiez» is the signature Marie used for a series of anonymous prank letters to Emile d'Audiffret («le Surprenant», «Soroka») in Nice, January–March 1876, in a disguised man's hand or in printed capitals. The joke is that Audiffret has sold his soul («la vente de l'âme», 051.0292) and that the friars of the Franciscan house at Cimiez, above Nice, are searching for it on behalf of his poor body («Cherche ton âme ô corps infortuné !», 052.0072). Variants: «les frères moineaux de Cimiez» (a pun on moines and moineaux, sparrows, 054.0012) and a letter in Niçois signed «Le padri de Cimiès» (054.0116, 054.0119). She planned to collect them into a mock-epic «comme le Lutrin» (052.0079) and still thought them «une drôlerie très amusante et très spirituelle» in 1883 (100.0264).

The place is CIMIEZ; real monks (the two friars who actually called at the Audiffret tower after her letter to the Superior, 052.0199, 052.0297, 060.0259) are not tagged here. Companion masks in the same campaign: ALFEDA_DA_FE, DOM_FABRICE, RELIGIEUSES_DU_BON_PASTEUR, CIREURS_DE_BOTTES_DE_NICE.

References in Diary

• 1876-01-01: signature and letter (051.0272, 051.0275); «Celle des moines n'est que le commencement d'une longue correspondance» (051.0276); 051.0292
• 1876-01-03: «Demain Collignon expédiera la lettre des moines» (051.0347)
• 1876-01-07: letter signed «Les frères moines de Cimiez» (051.0435)
• 1876-01-08: copying «la lettre des moines» in printed capitals (051.0444)
• 1876-01-11: letter signed «Les frères moines de Cimiez» (052.0073); «la correspondance avec les moines» (052.0079)
• 1876-01-15: the letter to Audiffret's friend Andriot, signed «Les frères etc.», with «nous avons appris du nouveau et de l'atroce !» (052.0168)
• 1876-02-12: «Les frères moineaux de Cimiez» (054.0012)
• 1876-02-15: the Niçois letter, «padre de Cimiès» / «Le padri de Cimiès» (054.0116, 054.0119); translation signed «Les moines de Cimiez» (054.0124)
• 1876-02-17: «Les frères moines de Cimiez» (054.0206)
• 1876-03-05: «Les moines de Cimiez» (055.0155)
• 1876-03-31: «mes lettres aux moines de Cimiez» (056.0264)
• 1876-04-29: she reads Olga «les lettres des moines et des cireurs» (059.0627)
• 1876-10-02: «les moines d'Audiffret me serviront» for a letter to Gambetta (066.0590)
• 1877-08-16: «du nouveau et de l'atroce» comme les moines de Cimiez, quoting her own letter of 15 January 1876 (073.0455)
• 1883-06-29: «les lettres des moines de Cimiez au Surprenant» (100.0264)

Owner ruling 2026-10-22 (B-75): Marie's code and mask names are tagged to the mask-name file, never to MARIE.