François Nepveu

Last updated April 02, 2019

François (Francis) Nepveu (29 April 1639—17 February 1708) was a writer on ascetical subjects. He entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus 12 October 1654, when but fifteen years old. Successively professor of Grammar, of Humanities and Rhetoric for six years, and of Philosophy for eight years, he was afterwards employed in the government. In 1689 he was made superior at Nantes; in 1684 rector at Vannes; in 1694 and 1700 rector at Orléans; in 1697 at Rouen; in 1704 Rennes where he was director of retreats until his death, 17 February 1708.

The Society of Jesus is a scholarly religious congregation of the Catholic Church for men which originated in sixteenth-century Spain. The members are called Jesuits. The society is engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 nations. Jesuits work in education, intellectual research, and cultural pursuits. Jesuits also give retreats, minister in hospitals and parishes, sponsor direct social ministries, and promote ecumenical dialogue.

Nantes is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, 50 km (31 mi) from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth-largest in France, with a population of 303,382 in Nantes and a metropolitan area of nearly 950,000 inhabitants. With Saint-Nazaire, a seaport on the Loire estuary, Nantes forms the main north-western French metropolis.

Vannes is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France. It was founded over 2,000 years ago.

Father Nepvue, described as a man of great zeal and intelligence, wrote voluminously on ascetical subjects, and some of his works have gone through many editions, having been translated into various languages. Among his more important works are numbered the following: "De l'amour de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ, et des Moyens de l'acquérir" (Nantes, 1684), has gone through no less than fourteen editions in France, selections from it were printed in the "Petite Bibliothèque Chrétienne", issued by A. Vromont, Brussels, 1893, and it has been translated into German, Italian (six editions), Spanish, Flemish, Polish, and English, ed. by the Rev. Henry J. Coleridge, S.J., and issued by Burns and Oates, 1869; "Retraite selon l'esprit et la métho de de Saint Ignace" (Paris, 1677; 514 pp.), also numbers fourteen editions of the original and translations have been made into German, Spanish Flemish, Italian, and six editions in Latin; "Méthode facile d'oraison, réduite pratique" (Nantes) went through more than twelve editions in French and was several times issued in Spanish; "Pensées et Réflections Chrétiennes pour tous le jours de l'année (4 vols., Paris, 1695, had eighteen French editions, the latest by Guyot, Paris, 1850, 640 pp., and went through some eleven editions in foreign languages; "L'esprit du Christianisme ou la Conformité du Chrétien avec Jésus-Christ" (Paris, 1700, 380 pp.), went through twenty-four editions, and three editions of extracts therefrom appeared in Belgium, also translated into foreign languages, ten editions coming out in Italian.

Related Research Articles

Jakob Abbadie, also known as Jacques or James Abbadie, was a French Protestant minister and writer. He became Dean of Killaloe, in Ireland.

Edmond Dehault de Pressensé was a French Protestant religious leader.

Jean de Labadie was a 17th-century French pietist. Originally a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, he became a member of the Reformed Church in 1650, before founding the community which became known as the Labadists in 1669. At its height the movement numbered around 600 with thousands of adherents further afield. It attracted some notable female converts such as the famed poet and scholar, Anna Maria van Schurman, and the entomological artist Maria Merian.

Jacques-Philippe Lallemant was a French Jesuit, of whom little is known beyond his writings. He took part in the discussion on the Chinese rites, and wrote the “Journal historique des assemblées tenues en Sorbonne pour condamner les Mémoires de la Chine”, a defense of his confrère Lecomte against the Sorbonnist, Jacques Lefèvre.

The French School of Spirituality was the principal devotional influence within the Catholic Church from the mid-17th century through the mid-20th century not only in France but throughout the church in most of the world. A development of the Catholic Reformation like the Spanish mystics and the Society of Jesus, it focused the devotional life of the Catholic faithful on a personal experience of the person of Jesus and the quest for personal holiness. It was perhaps more concrete than the Iberian example and thus easier to teach, but it shared with the Spanish saints their focus on the Divine Person. This movement in Catholic spirituality had many important figures over the centuries, the first being its founder, Cardinal Pierre de Berulle (1575–1629).

Jean-Guenolé-Marie Daniélou, S.J. was a French member of the Jesuit order and a Roman Catholic cardinal. He was also a theologian and historian and a member of the Académie française.

Jean-François Baltus was a French Jesuit theologian.

Antoine de Gaudier was a French Jesuit writer on ascetic theology.

Charles Le Gobien was a French Jesuit writer, founder of the Lettres édifiantes et curieuses a collection of reports from Jesuit missionaries in China. It is a major source of information for the history of Catholic missions and life in China in those times.

Achille Desurmont was a French Redemptorist ascetical writer.

Juan Cardenas was a Spanish Jesuit moral theologian and author. He entered the Society of Jesus at the age of fourteen, and during many years held in it the office of rector, master of novices, and provincial.

Jean Crasset was a French Jesuit theologian, known as an ascetical writer.

Servais-Théodore Pinckaers O.P. was a noted moral theologian, Roman Catholic priest, and member of the Dominican Order. He has been especially influential in the renewal of a theological and Christological approach to Christian virtue ethics.

Xavier Tilliette was a French philosopher, historian of philosophy, and theologian. A former student of Jean Wahl and of Vladimir Jankélévitch, he was a member of the Society of Jesus (1938) and professor emeritus at the Catholic Institute of Paris (1969), having taught also at the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome (1972), the Lateran University, and the Centre Sèvres in Paris.

Pierre Rousselot, was a Jesuit author of the controversial Les yeux de la foi, and he was a great influence upon Henri de Lubac.

Bernard Cottret, born in 1951 at Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris, is a French Historian and literary scholar.

Paul Klein was a Jesuit missionary, pharmacist, botanist, author of an astronomic observation, writer, rector of Colegio de Cavite as well as the rector of Colegio de San José and later Jesuit Provincial Superior in the Philippines, the highest ranking Jesuit official in the country. Klein is known as an important personality of life during the 18th-century Manila.

Francis Baines (1648–1710) was an English Jesuit.

Pierre Grelot was a French Roman Catholic priest, biblical scholar and theologian. He had a perfect knowledge of aramaic and was a specialist in Paul's letters.

Robert Morel was a French Benedictine monk.

References

Catholic Encyclopedia: Francis Nepveu

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Francis Nepveu". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton.

The public domain consists of all the creative works to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable.

The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States and designed to serve the Roman Catholic Church. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index volume in 1914 and later supplementary volumes. It was designed "to give its readers full and authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action and doctrine".

François Nepveu

Related Research Articles

References

Further reading