Mother Agnès Arnauld, S.O.Cist. (1593–1672), was the

Abbess An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa'') is the female superior of a community of nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic, Lutheran and Anglican abbeys, the mod ...

of the Abbey of Port-Royal, near Paris, and a major figure in French

Jansenism Jansenism was a 17th- and 18th-century Christian theology, theological movement within Roman Catholicism, primarily active in Kingdom of France, France, which arose as an attempt to reconcile the theological concepts of Free will in theology, f ...

. She was born Jeanne-Catherine-Agnès Arnauld, a member of the

Arnauld family The Arnauld or Arnaud family Lord de la Mothe, de Bessac, de la Besse, de Villeneuve, de Ronzière et d'Artonne, then d'Andilly, de Corbeville and Marquess de Pomponne is a noble French family prominent in the 17th century, and closely associate ...

, sister of

Antoine Arnauld Antoine Arnauld (; 6 February 16128 August 1694) was a French Catholic theologian, priest, philosopher and mathematician. He was one of the leading intellectuals of the Jansenist group of Port-Royal and had a very thorough knowledge of patr ...

, "le Grand Arnauld" and of Mother Angélique Arnauld. She succeeded Angélique as head of the abbey in 1658, thus leading it during the most repressive anti-Jansenist period. She organised the movement against signing the Formulary of Alexander VII and for this was confronted by Hardouin de Péréfixe, the

Archbishop of Paris The Archdiocese of Paris (; ) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. It is one of twenty-three archdioceses in France. The original diocese is traditionally thought to have been created i ...

. She was also the author of the ''Constitutions'' of Port-Royal, a text which reformed the material and spiritual rule of the abbey in a spirit of

Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

renewal.

Bibliography

Perle Bugnon-Secrétan, ''Mère Agnès Arnauld. 1593 - 1672. Abbesse de Port-Royal'', Cerf, 1996, 272 p. {{DEFAULTSORT:Arnauld 1593 births 1672 deaths Nuns from Paris 17th-century French nuns 17th-century Christian mystics Cistercian abbesses Jansenists French Roman Catholic abbesses Cistercian mystics Burials in Île-de-France