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Historical Figure

Madame Guyon

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Madame Guyon, born Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon, was a French mystic, spiritual writer and lay teacher of prayer who lived from 1648 to 1717. Her writings on inward prayer, abandonment to God and pure love, especially the Moyen court et tres facile de faire oraison and her biblical commentaries, circulated widely in manuscript and print and became one of the central subjects of the late seventeenth century Quietist controversy in France; they influenced Francois Fenelon, archbishop of Cambrai, but drew the opposition of Jacques-Benigne Bossuet, Louis Antoine de Noailles and other French ecclesiastical authorities. She was never formally condemned as a heretic by name, but her writings and teachings stood behind the Articles of Issy in 1695, and her Moyen court was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1689; she was imprisoned several times, including in the Bastille, and spent her later years at Blois. Although her teaching remained suspect in Catholic France, her writings were widely read in Protestant circles, especially among Pietists, Quakers, Methodists, Holiness writers and other traditions of inward religion, and her spirituality belonged to a wider transnational literature of interior prayer that included earlier Spanish and New Spanish contemplatives such as the hermit Gregorio Lopez.

Facts
Classification
Nationality
France 1
Veneration Status
Historically Significant but Not Venerated 1
Attestation
Historicity
Historically attested 1
Identity
Gender
Female 1
Life
Lifespan or Floruit
1648 to 1717 1
Connections

Belongs to Tradition

Source Wikipedia: Jeanne Guyon

Revered In

Source Wikipedia: Jeanne Guyon
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Nationality

Also in History Atlas: the nationality of this subject.

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Source Madame Guyon (Wikipedia)lead paragraph
Quote, lead paragraph
She was imprisoned several times, including in the Bastille, and spent her later years at Blois.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Jeanne Guyon
Wikipedia
  • Nationality, from source article
    Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de La Motte Guyon was a French mystic, spiritual writer, and lay teacher of prayer.
  • Lead section
    was a French mystic, spiritual writer, and lay teacher of prayer whose writings on inward prayer, abandonment to God, and pure love became one of the central subjects of the late seventeenth-century Quietist controversy in France.
  • Lead section: gender
    Her works, especially Moyen court et très facile de faire oraison and her biblical commentaries, circulated widely in manuscript and print.
  • Lead section: historicity
    Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de La Motte Guyon (commonly Madame Guyon; 13 April 1648-9 June 1717) was a French mystic, spiritual writer, and lay teacher of prayer whose writings on inward prayer, abandonment to God, and pure love became one of the central subjects of the late seventeenth-century Quietist controversy in France.
  • Lead, life dates
    Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de La Motte Guyon (commonly Madame Guyon; 13 April 1648-9 June 1717) was a French mystic, spiritual writer, and lay teacher of prayer whose writings on inward prayer, abandonment to God, and pure love became one of the central subjects of the late seventeenth-century Quietist controversy in France.
  • Belongs to Tradition: Christianity, Lead sentence
    Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de La Motte Guyon (commonly known as Madame Guyon, French: [gɥi.jɔ̃]; 13 April 1648-9 June 1717) was a French Christian accused of advocating Quietism, which was considered heretical by the Roman Catholic Church.
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