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Writing a Spiritual Biography in Early Modern France: The 'Many Lives' of Madeleine de Lamoignon
Hillman, Jennifer
Hillman, Jennifer
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2019-02-01
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Abstract
In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, four different spiritual
biographers wrote the "life" of the recently deceased lay dévote, Madeleine de
Lamoignon (1609-1687). Each of these authors was seeking to compose a spiritual
biography - an account of Madeleine's devotional life - and they were all penned with
the distant prospect of beatification or canonisation in mind. This article analyses these
four retellings of Madeleine's life in order to excavate the process of writing vitae, and
situates this within the broader context of lay spiritual biography in early modern
France. It is argued here that a comparative exploration of Madeleine de Lamoignon's
"lives" reveals different, and sometimes competing, conceptions of lay female sanctity
in the Counter-Reformation era. Ultimately, the article contends that by turning our
attention to neglected biographies of lay women, scholars might better understand how
a life outside of the cloister could be reconciled with saintliness.
Citation
Jennifer Hillman, (2019). Writing a Spiritual Biography in Early Modern France: The 'Many Lives' of Madeleine de Lamoignon. French Historical Studies, 42(1), 1-34.
Publisher
Duke University Press
Journal
French Historical Studies
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Article
Language
en
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ISSN
0016-1071
EISSN
1527-5493