Suffering Saints: Jansenists and Convulsionnaires in France, 1640-1799

This comprehensive survey of Jansenism and Convulsionism in France is the only work currently available in English that places the Jansenist movement in the context of French political, social, economic, religious, and intellectual developments in the 17th and 18th centuries. Author Brian Strayer provides biographical sketches of its key leaders, analyzes their major writings, and highlights both the movement's internal conflicts and its struggles against Church and State persecution. From letters, diaries, books, and speeches, Strayer explains such important Jansenist themes as suffering, saintliness, truth, conflict, passive resistance, and their gradual embracing of toleration. He provides fresh insights into asceticism, Gallicanism, Richerism, Conciliarism, Jesuitism, and Convulsionism in their historical contexts. With gentle wit, the author exposes the contradictions and paradoxes within the movement, shares human interest stories about the Port-Royal nuns, and shows how papal bulls poisoned the religious and political life in France from 1643 to 1713 and beyond. Suffering Saints is the result of five years of research in primary and secondary sources from several major archives and libraries in Paris and the United States.