Marie-Madeleine de Rochechouart
Encyclopedia
House of Rochechouart
The House of Limoges-Rochechouart is the most ancient noble family in France after the royal family. This powerful dynasty of the Carolingian era dates back to Foucher, supporter of Charles the Bald, who became viscount of Limoges in 876...
. The abbess of Fontevraud Abbey
Fontevraud Abbey
Fontevraud Abbey or Fontevrault Abbey is a religious building hosting a cultural centre since 1975, the Centre Culturel de l'Ouest, in the village of Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, near Chinon, in Anjou, France. It was founded by the itinerant reforming preacher Robert of Arbrissel, who had just created a...
, she was an influential figure in the 17th century French intellectual community. She was the daughter of Gabriel de Rochechouart, duc de Mortemart
Gabriel de Rochechouart, duc de Mortemart
Gabriel de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Duke of Mortemart was a French nobleman and father of the Marquise de Montespan. He was a friend of the French King Louis XIII....
, and thus sister to Madame de Montespan.
House of Rochechouart
The House of Limoges-Rochechouart is the most ancient noble family in France after the royal family. This powerful dynasty of the Carolingian era dates back to Foucher, supporter of Charles the Bald, who became viscount of Limoges in 876...
. The abbess of Fontevraud Abbey
Fontevraud Abbey
Fontevraud Abbey or Fontevrault Abbey is a religious building hosting a cultural centre since 1975, the Centre Culturel de l'Ouest, in the village of Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, near Chinon, in Anjou, France. It was founded by the itinerant reforming preacher Robert of Arbrissel, who had just created a...
, she was an influential figure in the 17th century French intellectual community. She was the daughter of Gabriel de Rochechouart, duc de Mortemart
Gabriel de Rochechouart, duc de Mortemart
Gabriel de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Duke of Mortemart was a French nobleman and father of the Marquise de Montespan. He was a friend of the French King Louis XIII....
, and thus sister to Madame de Montespan.
House of Rochechouart
The House of Limoges-Rochechouart is the most ancient noble family in France after the royal family. This powerful dynasty of the Carolingian era dates back to Foucher, supporter of Charles the Bald, who became viscount of Limoges in 876...
. The abbess of Fontevraud Abbey
Fontevraud Abbey
Fontevraud Abbey or Fontevrault Abbey is a religious building hosting a cultural centre since 1975, the Centre Culturel de l'Ouest, in the village of Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, near Chinon, in Anjou, France. It was founded by the itinerant reforming preacher Robert of Arbrissel, who had just created a...
, she was an influential figure in the 17th century French intellectual community. She was the daughter of Gabriel de Rochechouart, duc de Mortemart
Gabriel de Rochechouart, duc de Mortemart
Gabriel de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Duke of Mortemart was a French nobleman and father of the Marquise de Montespan. He was a friend of the French King Louis XIII....
, and thus sister to Madame de Montespan.
Life
Gabrielle de Rochechouart was endowed with great beauty. In her childhood, she devoted herself to studying philosophy and languages living and dead. Upon submitting to Maria Theresa of AustriaMaria Theresa of Austria
Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma...
, it was an astonishment to the new queen, unaccustomed to hear a young person from the court speak, languages other than French with ease. Introduced to various schools, who shared opinions, she turned to theology and doctrine of the Holy Fathers and Councils. With all these gifts, she was nevertheless of great simplicity. The world offered her all the seductions: she preferred to devote himself to God and buried deep in a retreat. She took the veil in the monastery of Saint-Evroult-Notre-Dame-du-Bois
Saint-Evroult-Notre-Dame-du-Bois
Saint-Evroult-Notre-Dame-du-Bois is a commune in the Orne department in north-western France.-See also:*Communes of the Orne department* -References:*...
in 1664, then in Poissy
Poissy
Poissy is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris from the center.In 1561 it was the site of a fruitless Catholic-Huguenot conference, the Colloquy at Poissy...
.
Queen of Abbesses
Gabrielle de Rochechouart Mortemart fled from worldly status. But Louis XIV, who understood how to distinguish merit, appointed her, on 16 August 1670, Superior General of the Fontevraud AbbeyFontevraud Abbey
Fontevraud Abbey or Fontevrault Abbey is a religious building hosting a cultural centre since 1975, the Centre Culturel de l'Ouest, in the village of Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, near Chinon, in Anjou, France. It was founded by the itinerant reforming preacher Robert of Arbrissel, who had just created a...
, where she led the monks along with the nuns. Without neglecting the duties of her office, she did not forget his favorite studies and turned Fontevraud an intellectual and cultural center. She translated the first three books of The Iliad of Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
, and with Racine
Racine
-Geography:Racine is the name of several communities in the United States of America:*Racine, Wisconsin, the largest city named Racine in the United States*Racine, Minnesota*Racine, Missouri*Racine, Ohio*Racine, West Virginia*Racine County, Wisconsin...
, Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
's Symposium
Symposium
In ancient Greece, the symposium was a drinking party. Literary works that describe or take place at a symposium include two Socratic dialogues, Plato's Symposium and Xenophon's Symposium, as well as a number of Greek poems such as the elegies of Theognis of Megara...
. Endowed with great exactness of mind, she met with the best writers of the day, asking for opinions and advice. Always humble, she received them with love, and they retired happy, even honored to have been admitted to her. Under her administration, the order was thriving. Authority over the abbey, and the mother-fifty priories depended earned her the title of queen of Abbesses, as reported by Saint-Simon
Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon
Louis de Rouvroy commonly known as Saint-Simon was a French soldier, diplomatist and writer of memoirs, was born in Paris...
, that
his spirit surpassed that of her sisters, and she joined them with a knowledge strong and extensive.Victor Cousin says:
She had the spirit of Mortemart, and something of the beauty of her sisters, with the most noble traits and an air of majesty and mildness.Louis XIV, with whom she corresponded regularly, tried to appoint her to the court, but she refused, preferring to remain in Fontevraud. After her disgrace, Madame de Montespan had frequent stays in the abbey of his sister, whom she loved. Gabrielle de Rochechouart Mortemart died August 15, 1704, leaving several pamphlets of various kinds. On hearing the news, Louis XIV pronounced during his dinner a thought for the great abbess.
He had preserved, wrote Saint-Simon, esteem and friendship which neither the expulsion of Madame de Montespan, or extreme for Madame de Maintenon could not dull.She was replaced as head of the abbey by her niece, Louise-Françoise, de Mortemart.
Sources
- Général de RochechouartLouis-Victor-Léon de RochechouartLouis-Victor-Léon de Rochechouart was a French general of the House of Rochechouart fighting in the Royalist, Imperial Russian and Bourbon armies of the Napoleonic Wars.- A peripatetic childhood :...
, Histoire de la Maison de Rochechouart (Paris, 1859) - Georges Martin, Histoire et généalogie de la Maison de Rochechouart (Mathias, 1990)