A seventeenth-century French seamstress, Claudine Moine was a refugee from the Thirty Years War, and lived in Paris during the period in which she wrote this profoundly rich autobiographical account of her spiritual development, a work of extraordinary spiritual and theological richness.
A seventeenth-century French seamstress, Claudine Moine was a refugee from the Thirty Years War, and lived in Paris during the period in which she wrote this profoundly rich autobiographical account of her spiritual development, a work of extraordinary spiritual and theological richness. Precisely, and under obedience to her spiritual director, she relates a detailed narrative of God's involvement in her life, written principally in the three years from 1652 to 1655. The text is of a quality which compares to such works as The Cloud of Unknowing, Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love or The Life of Saint Theresa of Avila, and perhaps surpasses them in certain areas of interest to the historian.
Standing comparison with the great confessions of spirituality in Christian literature, this is the autobiographical account of the spiritual development of a French seamstress who lived in the middle years of the 17th century.
Preface Acknowledgements Introduction First Account: Autobiography
1. Preliminary Oblation
2. How God watched over me
3. I received in my mind a very great light
4. Three states of my soul
5. I have scarcely ever received graces except through Holy Communion
6. My exercises and occupations Second Account: Deepening
7. Preliminary Invocation
8. Spiritual combat
9. Infused lights
10. The Holy Sacrament
11. The Great Darkness
12. Conclusion Third Account: Light
13. Lights on the mysteries of Christ
14. Lights on the mysteries of God
15. Effects and value of the divine action Fourth Account: On Prayer
16. Three stages of parayer
17. Familiarity of Jesus Christ with the soul
18. How God speaks to the soul
19. What disposes to prayer
20. Effects of prayer
21. Excellence of the divine communications
22. General conclusion Notes Selected Bibliography Index
The Revd Gerard Carroll, D.D., Ph.D., theologian, man of letters, musician and scholar, studied under the renowned Jean Delumeau at the Ecole Superieure des Hautes Etudes in Paris. He is an Irish priest who holds advanced degrees from the Lateran University in Rome, Trinity College, Dublin, and London University. He has also taught and lectured widely at universities both in Europe and America.
