Agnes Arnauld

Agnès Arnauld was a prominent figure in French Jansenism and the abbess of the convent of Port-Royal. She was born in Paris in 1593, the third daughter of a prominent family of jurists. She was appointed as the abbess of Saint-Cyr at the age of six, but renounced it in 1610 to join her sister Angélique at Port-Royal, where she embraced the monastic reform. She became a spiritual director and a prolific writer of letters, treatises, and constitutions for the convent. She also defended the Jansenist doctrine of grace and resisted the pressure from the authorities to sign the anti-Jansenist formulary. She was exiled several times and suffered persecution for her faith. She died in 1671 at Port-Royal-des-Champs, where she was buried. She is remembered as a model of piety, courage, and wisdom.