Charles Pierre Péguy (; 7 January 1873 – 5 September 1914) was a French poet, essayist, and editor. His two main philosophies were

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

and

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

; by 1908 at the latest, after years of uneasy

agnosticism Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. (page 56 in 1967 edition) It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer t ...

, he had become a believing (but generally non-practicing)

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

. From that time, Catholicism strongly influenced his works.

Biography

Péguy was born into poverty in

Orléans Orléans (,"Orleans"
(US) and Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux, winning a scholarship at the École normale supérieure (Paris), where he attended notably the lectures of Henri Bergson and Romain Rolland, whom he befriended. He formally left without graduating, in 1897, though he continued attending some lectures in 1898. Influenced by Lucien Herr, librarian of the ''École Normale Supérieure'', he became an ardent Dreyfusard. In 1897, Péguy married Charlotte-Françoise Baudoin; they had one daughter and three sons, one of whom was born after Péguy's death. Around 1910 he fell deeply in love with Blanche Raphael, a young Jewish friend; however, he was faithful to his wife. From his earliest years, he was influenced by socialism. He joined the Socialist Party in 1895. From 1900 until his death in 1914, he was the main contributor to and the editor of the literary magazine ''Les Cahiers de la Quinzaine'', which at first supported the Socialist Party director Jean Jaurès. However, Péguy ultimately ended this support after he began viewing Jaurès as a traitor to the nation and to socialism. In the ''Cahiers'', Péguy published not only his own essays and poetry, but also works by important contemporary authors such as Romain Rolland. His free-verse poem, "Portico of the Mystery of the Second Virtue", has gone through more than 60 editions in France. It was a favourite book of

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...

. When the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

broke out, Péguy became a lieutenant in the 19th company of the French 276th Infantry Regiment. He died in battle, shot in the forehead, near Villeroy,

Seine-et-Marne Seine-et-Marne () is a department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square kilometres (2,284 square miles); it roughly covers its ...

on the day before the beginning of the Battle of the Marne. There is a memorial to Péguy near the field where he was killed.

Influence

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

both supporters and opponents of

Vichy France Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the Battle of France, ...

cited Péguy. Edmond Michelet was the first of many members of the

French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

to quote Péguy; de Gaulle, familiar with Péguy's writing, quoted him in a 1942 speech. Those who opposed Vichy's anti-Semitism laws often cited him. By contrast, Robert Brasillach praised Péguy as a "French National Socialist", and Péguy's sons Pierre and Marcel wrote that their father was an inspiration for Vichy's National Revolution ideology and "above all, a racist". It has been written that Péguy would likely have been horrified by his future influence on fascism. The English novelist Graham Greene alluded to Péguy in '' Brighton Rock'', while '' The Heart of the Matter'' has as its epigraph a quotation from Péguy. In ''The Lawless Roads'' Greene refers to Péguy "challenging God in the cause of the damned". The Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, in the course of describing the history of art as a sometimes more and sometimes less successful approximation of God's creativeness, noted that Péguy's Eve was a "theological redemption of the project of

Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French language, French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Pas ...

", meaning that where Proust had memory and charity, the Eve of Péguy – not necessarily Péguy – had memory, charity and knowledge of the redemption of God. English poet Geoffrey Hill published a book-length poem in 1983 in homage to Péguy, entitled ''The Mystery of the Charity of Charles Péguy''.

Famous quotations

"The world has changed more in the last 30 years than in all the time since Jesus Christ." (said in 1913) "The sinner is at the very heart of Christianity. Nobody is so competent as the sinner in matters of Christianity. Nobody, except the saint." This is the epigraph to Graham Greene's novel '' The Heart of the Matter'' (1948). "It will never be known what acts of cowardice have been committed for fear of not looking sufficiently progressive." (''Notre Patrie'', 1905) " Tyranny is always better organised than

freedom Freedom is the power or right to speak, act, and change as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving oneself one's own laws". In one definition, something is "free" i ...

". "

Kantian ethics Kantian ethics refers to a Deontology, deontological ethical theory developed by German philosopher Immanuel Kant that is based on the notion that "I ought never to act except in such a way that I could also will that my maxim should become a un ...

has clean hands but, in a manner of speaking, actually no hands." "How maddening, says God, it will be when there are no longer any Frenchmen." "There will be things that I do that no one will be left to understand." (''Le Mystère des saints Innocents'') "It is impossible to write ancient history because we do not have enough sources, and impossible to write modern history because we have too many". (''Clio'', 1909) "Everything begins in mysticism and ends in politics." (''Notre Jeunesse'', 1909) "Homer is original this morning, and nothing is perhaps so old as today's newspaper."

Works

Essays * (1901). ''De la Raison''. * (1902). ''De Jean Coste''. * (1905). ''Notre Patrie''. * (1907–08). ''Situations''. * (1910). ''Notre Jeunesse''. * (1910). ''Victor-Marie, Comte Hugo''. * (1911). ''Un Nouveau Théologien''. * (1913). ''L'Argent''. * (1913). ''L'Argent Suite''. * (1914). ''Note sur M. Bergson et la Philosophie Bergsonienne''. * (1914). ''Note Conjointe sur M. Descartes et la Philosophie Cartésienne'' (posth.) * (1931). ''Clio. Dialogue de l'Histoire et de l'âme Païenne'' (posth.) * (1972). ''Véronique. Dialogue de l'Histoire et de l'âme Charnelle''. Paris: Gallimard (posth.) Poetry * (1912). ''Le Porche du Mystère de la Deuxième Vertu''. * (1913). ''La Tapisserie de Sainte Geneviève et de Jeanne d'Arc''. * (1913). ''La Tapisserie de Notre-Dame''. * (1913). ''Ève''. Plays * (1897). ''Jeanne d'Arc''. Paris: Librairie de la Revue Socialiste. * (1910). ''Le Mystère de la Charité de Jeanne d'Arc''. * (1912). ''Le Mystère des Saints Innocents''. Miscellany * (1927). ''Lettres et Entretiens'' (posth.) * (1980). '', 1905–1914: Charles Péguy – Pierre Marcel''. Paris: Minard (posth.) Collected Works * (1916–55). ''Œuvres Complètes de Charles-Péguy''. Paris: Gallimard (20 vols.) * (1941). ''Œuvres Poétiques Complètes''. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade: Gallimard. * (1987–92). ''Œuvres en Prose Complètes:'' ** Tome I. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade: Gallimard, 1987. ** Tome II. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade: Gallimard, 1988. ** Tome III. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade: Gallimard, 1992.

Works in English translation

* (1943). "Freedom," ''Commonweal'', 8 January, p. 293. * (1943). ''Basic Verities. Prose and Poetry'', Trans. by Ann and Julien Green. New York: Pantheon Books Inc. * (1944). ''Man and Saints. Prose and Poetry'', Trans. by Ann and Julien Green. New York: Pantheon Books Inc. * (1950). ''The Mystery of the Charity of Joan of Arc'', Trans. by Julien Green. New York: Pantheon Books Inc. ondon: Hollis & Carter, 1950; Carcanet, 1986 * (1956). ''The Mystery of the Holy Innocents'', Trans. by Pansy Pakenham. London: The Harvill Press ew York: Harper, 1956 ** (1999). "The Mystery of the Holy Innocents," ''Communio'' 26 (2). * (1958). ''Temporal and Eternal'', Tran. by Alexander Dru. London: The Harvill Press ew York: Harper, 1958; Liberty Fund, 2001 * (1964). ''A Vision of Prayer''. Mount Saint Bernard Abbey: Saint Bernard Press. * (1965). ''God Speaks''. New York: Pantheon Books Inc. * (1970). ''The Portico of the Mystery of the Second Virtue'', Trans. by Dorothy Brown Aspinwall. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press. ** (1994). "On the Mystery of Hope," ''Communio'' 21 (3). ** (1996). ''The Portal of the Mystery of Hope'', Trans. by David Louis Schindler Jr. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark m. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2003; Continuum, 2005 * (2009). "On Money," ''Communio'' 36 (3). * (2019). ''Notes on Bergson and Descartes''. Eugene: Veritas ascade Books

Notes

References

* Adereth, Maxwell (1967). ''Commitment in Modern French Literature: A Brief Study of 'Littérature Engagée' in the Works of Péguy, Aragon, and Sartre''. London: Victor Gollancz. * Halévy, Daniel (1918)
''Charles Péguy et les Cahiers de la Quinzaine''
Paris: Payot et Cie. * Jussem-Wilson, Nelly (1965). ''Charles Péguy''. London: Barnes and Barnes. * Jorge Juan Molinas Lara (2014). ''Crisis and commitment: Political ethics on Charles Péguy''. The University of Valencia. * Moran, Sean Farrell (1989). "Patrick Pearse and the European Revolt Against Reason", ''The Journal of the History of Ideas'',50, 4, 423–66 * Mounier, Emmanuel (1931). ''La Pensée de Charles Péguy''. Paris: Plon. * O'Donnell, Donat (1951). "The Temple of Memory: Péguy," ''The Hudson Review'', Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 548–574. * Rolland, Romain (1944). ''Péguy''. Paris: A. Michel. * Schmitt, Hans A. (1967). ''Charles Péguy: The Decline of an Idealist''. Louisiana State University Press. * Secrétain, Roger (1941). ''Péguy, Soldat de la Liberté''. Montréal: Valiquette. * Servais, Yvonne (1950). "Charles Peguy and the Sorbonne: 1873–1914," ''Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review'', Vol. 39, No. 154, pp. 159–170. * Servais, Yvonne (1953). ''Charles Péguy: The Pursuit of Salvation''. Cork University Press. * Turquet-Milnes, G. (1921)
"Charles Péguy,"
in ''Some Modern French Writers. A Study in Bergsonism''. New York: Robert M. McBride & Company, pp. 212–241. * Villiers, Marjorie (1965). ''Charles Péguy: A Study in Integrity''. Londres: Collins.

External links

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Charles Péguy
biography b
James Horrox
at The Literary Encyclopedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Peguy, Charles 1873 births 1914 deaths 19th-century Roman Catholics 20th-century Roman Catholics Writers from Orléans French Roman Catholic writers French socialists Catholic socialists Chartres Christian humanists Christian poets Converts to Roman Catholicism from atheism or agnosticism École Normale Supérieure alumni French Christian socialists 20th-century French journalists French male poets 19th-century French philosophers 20th-century French philosophers 20th-century French poets French male essayists Catholic philosophers Lycée Lakanal alumni French World War I poets French military personnel killed in World War I French Army officers