Jacqueline Pascal

Jacqueline Pascal (1625–1661)

Jacqueline Pascal (born October 4, 1625 in Clermont-Ferrand , † October 4, 1661 in Port-Royal des Champs ) was a French writer and nun .

Jacqueline Pascal was the third and youngest child of her parents Etienne and Antoinette. Her brother Blaise was two years older. She wrote poetry at the age of eight and a comedy in five acts at the age of eleven , which was performed under her direction. In 1638 a volume of poetry was published and she achieved national fame as a child prodigy and was invited to court by Queen Anna of Austria . A year later, Cardinal Richelieu pardoned her father, who had fallen out of favor due to political unrest and fled abroad. Encouraged by Pierre Corneille , he successfully participated in a poetry competition with a Palinod, a poem in honor of Mary's conception .

In 1646 Pascal became a follower of Jansenism together with her father and brother . After an intensive study of Jansenist literature, she saw it as her calling, against the opposition of her father and brother, to join the Port-Royal convent . After the death of her father, she entered the abbey on January 4, 1652 and made her vows on June 5, 1653 under the name "Sister Jacqueline de Saint-Euphémie". During her 10 years in the Abbey of Port-Royal in Paris, she took on important offices such as headmistress and later deputy prioress . She also continued her literary activity and wrote, among other things, a pamphlet on raising children ("Règlement pour les enfants", 1657) as well as biographical and autobiographical texts. In November 1659, Pascal left the Port-Royal de Paris Abbey and moved to the order's mother abbey, Port-Royal des Champs.

As the center of Jansenism, the Port-Royal des Champs was subject to increasing persecution in the years after Pascal's entry. She stood firm against papal cops who condemned Jansenism and long resisted demands to distance themselves from the damned views. Under heavy pressure and with reservations, however, like all the nuns in the monastery, she finally signed a corresponding declaration. A little later she died after a short illness.

Jacqueline Pascal's works were copied by her sister Gilberte Périer and only published in full independently by Victor Cousin and Armand Prosper Faugère in 1845 .

literature

• Jacqueline Pascal: A Rule for Children and Other Writings . Ed .: John J. Conley, SJ University of Chicago Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-226-64831-6 , pp. 203 (English).
• Robert Leuenberger: Jacqueline Pascal . TVZ Theologischer Verlag, 2002, ISBN 978-3-290-17240-4 , p. 94 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Jacqueline Pascal in the catalog of the German National Library
• John J. Conley:  Jacqueline Pascal (1625-1661). In: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
• Michel Le Guern: Les lettres de Jacqueline Pascal . In: Revue d'histoire littéraire de la France . tape 103 . Presses Universitaires de France, 2003, ISBN 978-2-13-053466-2 , pp. 267–273 , doi : 10.3917 / rhlf.032.0267 (French, cairn.info [accessed February 8, 2017]).
• Victor Giraud: Une Héroïne cornélienne - Jacqueline Pascal . In: Revue des Deux Mondes, 5e période . tape 50 , 1909, pp. 872-910 (French, wikisource.org ).