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Saint Claude La Colombière 17 C. French

ByKevin Sweeney

Saint Claude La Colombière was a 17th-century French Jesuit priest best known as the confessor. Saint Claude was born on February 2, 1641, and died on February 15, 1682. In 1676, St. Claude was sent to England as a preacher to Mary of Modena, then the Duchess of York, wife of the future King James II of England. He was imprisoned in France. Saint Claude was only canonized in 1992, but he wrote a lot. Saint Claude’s principal works, Pious Reflections, Meditations on the Passion, and Retreat and Spiritual Letters, were published in France. Pope Francis observes that his absolute confidence in God is “eloquently expressed” in his devotional writings. Have you ever heard of Saint Claude?

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
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Saint Claude Biography

Saint Claude was born in 1641. He was the third child in the family that soon moved to the nearby city of Vienne, France, where he began his education, before attending the Jesuit school in Lyon for his secondary studies. In 1658, at the age of seventeen, Saint Claude entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Avignon. Saint Claude did this despite what he recorded as “a terrible aversion for the life embraced.”

When Claude completed the two-year novitiate, he started his higher studies in the same city. He was professed there and completed his studies. After this, he spent the next five years of his regency teaching grammar and literature at the same school. All local, very convenient.

Saint Claude was sent to Paris in 1666 to study theology at the College de Clermont. He was a tutor of the children of the Royal Minister of Finances, Jean-Baptiste Colbert. After completing his studies there, he was ordained a priest in 1669 and initially was assigned to teach at his former school in Lyon. Then assigned to join the preaching team of the Jesuit community, through which he gained notice for the clarity and soundness of his sermons.

In 1674, after 15 years of life as a Jesuit, Saint Claude did his next period of probation, known as the tertianship, which was to prove decisive in his life. As a result of this experience of the Spiritual Exercises, on  February 2, 1675, after a fourth period of probation, he was appointed the rector of the Jesuit community at Paray-le-Monial, where he also became the spiritual director of the nuns of the Monastery of the Visitation Sisters. He became their confessor. Including Margaret Mary Alacoque.

In 1676, Saint Claude was sent to England. Liked the climate in England and spent a lot of time outdoors. His health was weakened his and a pulmonary condition threatened to end his work in that country. In November 1678, while awaiting a recall to France, he was arrested and imprisoned. He was caught up in the anti-Catholic hysteria, and he was confined in severe conditions at the King’s Bench Prison, where his fragile health took a turn for the worse.

Thanks to his position at the Royal Court and to the protection of the King of France, Louis XIV, whose subject he was, he escaped death but was expelled from England in 1679. He returned to France with his health ruined by his imprisonment. Saint Claude spent his last two years in Lyon, where he was a spiritual director to Jesuit novices. He died on February 15, 1682

Conclusion

Here we have an obscure French saint who was blessed, working with the Royals in both France and England. It is funny to think of the rivalry at the time between the two countries and how Saint Claude traversed the rivalry. We also have another example of a saint we know from long ago due to his published works, which we still have access to today.

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