French Literature Companion:
Jean-Ambroise du Vergier de Hauranne Saint-Cyran
Saint-Cyran, Jean-Ambroise du Vergier de Hauranne, abbé de (1581-1643). A central figure in the renewal of early 17th-c. French Catholic piety. He took part in anti-Jesuit controversy and succeeded Bérulle as leader of the dévots (1629). As a young man he became a close friend of Jansenius, sharing his Augustinian theology [see Jansenism]. He imparted this doctrine to Port-Royal on becoming spiritual director there in late 1635, exercising a powerful influence over Mère Angélique, the nuns, and the solitaires. Imprisoned on Richelieu's orders in 1638, he was released after the latter's death in 1642, but died the following year.
[John Cruickshank]
