Guyon, Jeanne Marie

(1648–1717)

   Mystic and Devotional Writer.

   Guyon was born Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Mothe in Montargis, France. She married, at the age of sixteen, a man twentytwo years older than herself. She was always inclined to mysticism and once she became a widow in 1676, she embarked on the devotional life. She was arrested in 1687, together with her spiritual director, on the suspicion of heresy and immorality, but on the intercession of Mme de Maintenon, she was released. From 1688 she was in correspondence with François fénelon, who defended her against Bishop bossuet. She was condemned again for her supposed Quietist views at the 1695 Conference of Issy and was not released from the Bastille until 1702. Her devotional writings include an autobiography, Moyen Court et Très Facile de Faire Oraison and Le Cantique des Cantiques.

   M. de la Bedoyere, The Archbishop and the Lady: The Story of Fénelon and Madame Guyon (1956);

   R.A. Knox, Enthusiasm (1950).