Jean Grou
Encyclopedia
Jean Nicolas Grou was a French Roman Catholic mystic and spiritual writer.
Philip Yancey
says that Jean Nicolas Grou was "a mystic from the eighteenth century, [who] prescribed that healthy prayer should be humble, reverent, loving, confident, and persevering — in other words, the exact opposite of impatient."
, in the diocese of Boulogne. He was educated at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand
in Paris, which at that time was under the direction of the Jesuits. At the age of fifteen, he was admitted to the Jesuit noviciate. He made his first vows at the age of seventeen, and was afterwards employed in teaching, according to the custom of the Society. In this employment his taste for literature was developed. He was particularly fond of Plato
and Cicero
, in whose writings he found, along with a great wealth of style, finer thoughts and a purer code of morals than in the majority of ancient authors. The first fruit of his labours in Greek philosophy
was a French translation of Plato's Republic. He went on to translate Plato's Laws
and then his other dialogues.
The decree suppressing the Jesuits in France obliged Grou to seek refuge in Lorraine. He lived for several years at Pont-à-Mousson
, where he made his final vows in 1765 or 1766. After the death of Stanislas, the Jesuits were also banished from Lorraine. Grou moved to Holland, where he continued his labours on Greek philosophy. He later returned to Paris, where he took the name of Leclaire. At Paris he led a very retired life, dividing his time between his studies and his religious duties. At first the Archbishop of Paris, Christophe de Beaumont
, employed him to write upon subjects relating to religion; the Archbishop also granted him for some time a pension, which eventually ceased. A holy nun of the Visitation
, whose acquaintance he made through one of his brother priests, and who was believed to be favoured with special graces, induced him to enter upon the way of perfection and a life of prayer. He gave to literary work all the time which was left to him after fulfilling his spiritual exercises and the cares of his ministry. The result of this laborious life was the composition of several books upon matters of piety. His first work of this kind was La Morale tirée des Confessions de Saint Augustin (1786), in which his design was to contrast the morals of Christianity with the systems of unbelievers, drawing his principles from the writings of Saint Augustine. This work was succeeded by Les Caractéres de la Vraie Devotion (Marks of True Devotion, 1788), in which Grou defined what true devotion is, and also its motives, its object, and its means. This volume was quickly followed by the Maximes Spirituelles, avec des Explications (Spiritual Maxims Explained, 1789).
About the same time he also composed several little pious treatises, of which he had copies made for the use of a devout lady of high rank whose director he then was. These manuscripts, which consisted of nine small volumes, have thus been preserved. He had also undertaken a great work which had cost him fourteen years of research and trouble. Before leaving France he confided the manuscripts of this work to a lady, who was arrested during the Reign of Terror
, and whose servants burned them, fearing they might compromise their mistress.
The life of Father Grou was upright and peaceful; he was much esteemed, enjoyed a pension from the king, and did great good by his advice and his writings. When the Revolution broke out, he at first wished to remain in Paris and continue exercising his ministry in secret; but the nun mentioned earlier persuaded him to seek refuge in England. He followed her advice, and was invited by one of his former brothers in religion, who was then chaplain to a prominent English Catholic, Mr. Thomas Weld, a member of the recusant Weld-Blundell family
and the father of Cardinal Thomas Weld
, to come and stay with him. Taking up his abode with the Welds at Lulworth Castle
, Grou became the spiritual director of the whole family. His gentleness, his wisdom, and his experience in the ways of the spiritual life, were most useful to the persons who gave him their confidence. It was then that he learnt that his great work, the fruit of so many years of labour, had been burnt at Paris. He bore this loss with much calmness, and said simply, “If God had wished to derive any glory from this work, He would have preserved it.”
He observed, as much as possible, the rule of the Jesuits; rose every day at four o'clock in the morning, without light or fire, made an hour's meditation, said his office
, and prepared for Mass
, which he never failed to celebrate every day until attacked by his last illness. He practised the strictest poverty, having nothing whatever of his own, and asking with the greatest simplicity for books or clothes when he needed them. He was remarkable for his lively faith and constant tranquillity of soul, as well as his great humility, modesty, and zeal. In 1796 he had printed in London, the Meditations, en forme de Retraite, sur I’Amour de Dieu (Meditations, in the form of a Retreat, upon the Love of God), and also a little treatise called Don de Soi-mēme è Dieu (The Gift of One's Self to God). Some theologians imagined these works contained ideas favourable to Quietism
; but a French bishop, after examining them, pronounced them to be perfectly sound, and free from any taint of the kind. Another work of his published in London was The School of Christ, which appeared not in French but in English.
The Supplement to the Library of Jesuit Writers, published at Rome in 1816, mentions also, as written by Father Grou, La Science du Crucifix, (The Science of the Crucifix); and its continuation, La Science Pratique du Crucifix dans l’usage des Sacrements de Pénitence et de Eucharistie (The Practical Science of the Crucifix in the use of the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist).
Two years before his death, he had a very painful attack of asthma
. Some time after, he was seized with apoplexy
and then with dropsy. His legs swelled to an enormous size; he could not remain in bed, and passed the last ten months of his life in an arm-chair. He continued to the very end to hear the confessions
of the pious family with whom he lived. Holy Communion was brought to him twice a week. When he felt his end approaching, he asked for the last Sacraments
, and received them with full consciousness and great devotion. A short time before he breathed his last, holding his crucifix in his hands, he exclaimed, “O my God! how sweet it is to die in Thine arms!”
On the 13th of December 1803, at the age of seventy-two, Father Grou died at Lulworth Castle, where the Weld family had so nobly and generously offered him hospitality—a hospitality which he richly repaid by his excellent counsels, and by writing for Mr. Weld and his children some of his most valuable ascetic works.
His manuscripts, which were numerous, were given up to his former companions, who in 1815 published L’Intérieur de Jesus et de Marie (The Inner Life of Jesus and Mary), an esteemed work which has been reprinted several times since.
The Christian Sanctified by the Lord's Prayer
The Hidden Life of the Soul Full view at Google Books.
How to Pray
The Interior of Jesus and Mary.
The Ladder of Sanctity
A Little Book on the Love of God
Self-consecration
Manual for Interior Soul Limited preview at Google Books. Read at archive.org
Meditations on the Love of God
The Practical Science of the Cross
The Spiritual Maxims of Père Grou
Jean Nicolas Grou's writings are also listed at the Open Library and Library Thing.
Philip Yancey
Philip Yancey
Philip Yancey is an American Christian author. Fourteen million of his books have been sold worldwide, making him one of the best-selling evangelical Christian authors. Two of his books have won the ECPA's Christian Book of the Year Award: The Jesus I Never Knew in 1996, What's So Amazing About...
says that Jean Nicolas Grou was "a mystic from the eighteenth century, [who] prescribed that healthy prayer should be humble, reverent, loving, confident, and persevering — in other words, the exact opposite of impatient."
Life
Jean Nicholas Grou was born at CalaisCalais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
, in the diocese of Boulogne. He was educated at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand
Lycée Louis-le-Grand
The Lycée Louis-le-Grand is a public secondary school located in Paris, widely regarded as one of the most rigorous in France. Formerly known as the Collège de Clermont, it was named in king Louis XIV of France's honor after he visited the school and offered his patronage.It offers both a...
in Paris, which at that time was under the direction of the Jesuits. At the age of fifteen, he was admitted to the Jesuit noviciate. He made his first vows at the age of seventeen, and was afterwards employed in teaching, according to the custom of the Society. In this employment his taste for literature was developed. He was particularly fond of Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
and Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
, in whose writings he found, along with a great wealth of style, finer thoughts and a purer code of morals than in the majority of ancient authors. The first fruit of his labours in Greek philosophy
Greek philosophy
Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BCE and continued through the Hellenistic period, at which point Ancient Greece was incorporated in the Roman Empire...
was a French translation of Plato's Republic. He went on to translate Plato's Laws
Laws (dialogue)
The Laws is Plato's last and longest dialogue. The question asked at the beginning is not "What is law?" as one would expect. That is the question of the Minos...
and then his other dialogues.
The decree suppressing the Jesuits in France obliged Grou to seek refuge in Lorraine. He lived for several years at Pont-à-Mousson
Pont-à-Mousson
Pont-à-Mousson is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.Population : 14,592 . It is an industrial town , situated on the Moselle River...
, where he made his final vows in 1765 or 1766. After the death of Stanislas, the Jesuits were also banished from Lorraine. Grou moved to Holland, where he continued his labours on Greek philosophy. He later returned to Paris, where he took the name of Leclaire. At Paris he led a very retired life, dividing his time between his studies and his religious duties. At first the Archbishop of Paris, Christophe de Beaumont
Christophe de Beaumont
Christophe de Beaumont , French ecclesiastic and archbishop of Paris, was a cadet of the Les Adrets and Saint-Quentin branch of the illustrious Dauphin family of Beaumont....
, employed him to write upon subjects relating to religion; the Archbishop also granted him for some time a pension, which eventually ceased. A holy nun of the Visitation
Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary
The Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary or the Visitation Order is a Roman Catholic religious order for women. Members of the order are also known as Filles de Sainte-Marie, Visitandines, Salesian Sisters and, more commonly, Visitationists.- History of the order :The Order was founded in 1610 by...
, whose acquaintance he made through one of his brother priests, and who was believed to be favoured with special graces, induced him to enter upon the way of perfection and a life of prayer. He gave to literary work all the time which was left to him after fulfilling his spiritual exercises and the cares of his ministry. The result of this laborious life was the composition of several books upon matters of piety. His first work of this kind was La Morale tirée des Confessions de Saint Augustin (1786), in which his design was to contrast the morals of Christianity with the systems of unbelievers, drawing his principles from the writings of Saint Augustine. This work was succeeded by Les Caractéres de la Vraie Devotion (Marks of True Devotion, 1788), in which Grou defined what true devotion is, and also its motives, its object, and its means. This volume was quickly followed by the Maximes Spirituelles, avec des Explications (Spiritual Maxims Explained, 1789).
About the same time he also composed several little pious treatises, of which he had copies made for the use of a devout lady of high rank whose director he then was. These manuscripts, which consisted of nine small volumes, have thus been preserved. He had also undertaken a great work which had cost him fourteen years of research and trouble. Before leaving France he confided the manuscripts of this work to a lady, who was arrested during the Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
, and whose servants burned them, fearing they might compromise their mistress.
The life of Father Grou was upright and peaceful; he was much esteemed, enjoyed a pension from the king, and did great good by his advice and his writings. When the Revolution broke out, he at first wished to remain in Paris and continue exercising his ministry in secret; but the nun mentioned earlier persuaded him to seek refuge in England. He followed her advice, and was invited by one of his former brothers in religion, who was then chaplain to a prominent English Catholic, Mr. Thomas Weld, a member of the recusant Weld-Blundell family
Weld-Blundell family
The Weld family, which became in its main branch the Weld-Blundell family, is an old English family that claims descent from Eadric the Wild and has branches in several parts of England and America. The main branch are descended from Humphrey Weld, Lord Mayor of London, whose grandson of the same...
and the father of Cardinal Thomas Weld
Thomas Weld (cardinal)
Thomas Weld was a member of the Weld-Blundell family and an English Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal.-Life:...
, to come and stay with him. Taking up his abode with the Welds at Lulworth Castle
Lulworth Castle
Lulworth Castle, in East Lulworth, Dorset, situated south of Wool, is an early 17th century mock castle. The stone building has now been re-built as a museum....
, Grou became the spiritual director of the whole family. His gentleness, his wisdom, and his experience in the ways of the spiritual life, were most useful to the persons who gave him their confidence. It was then that he learnt that his great work, the fruit of so many years of labour, had been burnt at Paris. He bore this loss with much calmness, and said simply, “If God had wished to derive any glory from this work, He would have preserved it.”
He observed, as much as possible, the rule of the Jesuits; rose every day at four o'clock in the morning, without light or fire, made an hour's meditation, said his office
Liturgy of the hours
The Liturgy of the Hours or Divine Office is the official set of daily prayers prescribed by the Catholic Church to be recited at the canonical hours by the clergy, religious orders, and laity. The Liturgy of the Hours consists primarily of psalms supplemented by hymns and readings...
, and prepared for Mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
, which he never failed to celebrate every day until attacked by his last illness. He practised the strictest poverty, having nothing whatever of his own, and asking with the greatest simplicity for books or clothes when he needed them. He was remarkable for his lively faith and constant tranquillity of soul, as well as his great humility, modesty, and zeal. In 1796 he had printed in London, the Meditations, en forme de Retraite, sur I’Amour de Dieu (Meditations, in the form of a Retreat, upon the Love of God), and also a little treatise called Don de Soi-mēme è Dieu (The Gift of One's Self to God). Some theologians imagined these works contained ideas favourable to Quietism
Quietism (Christian philosophy)
Quietism is a Christian philosophy that swept through France, Italy and Spain during the 17th century, but it had much earlier origins. The mystics known as Quietists insist, with more or less emphasis, on intellectual stillness and interior passivity as essential conditions of perfection...
; but a French bishop, after examining them, pronounced them to be perfectly sound, and free from any taint of the kind. Another work of his published in London was The School of Christ, which appeared not in French but in English.
The Supplement to the Library of Jesuit Writers, published at Rome in 1816, mentions also, as written by Father Grou, La Science du Crucifix, (The Science of the Crucifix); and its continuation, La Science Pratique du Crucifix dans l’usage des Sacrements de Pénitence et de Eucharistie (The Practical Science of the Crucifix in the use of the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist).
Two years before his death, he had a very painful attack of asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
. Some time after, he was seized with apoplexy
Apoplexy
Apoplexy is a medical term, which can be used to describe 'bleeding' in a stroke . Without further specification, it is rather outdated in use. Today it is used only for specific conditions, such as pituitary apoplexy and ovarian apoplexy. In common speech, it is used non-medically to mean a state...
and then with dropsy. His legs swelled to an enormous size; he could not remain in bed, and passed the last ten months of his life in an arm-chair. He continued to the very end to hear the confessions
Sacrament of Penance (Catholic Church)
In the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation is the method by which individual men and women may be freed from sins committed after receiving the sacrament of Baptism...
of the pious family with whom he lived. Holy Communion was brought to him twice a week. When he felt his end approaching, he asked for the last Sacraments
Last Rites
The Last Rites are the very last prayers and ministrations given to many Christians before death. The last rites go by various names and include different practices in different Christian traditions...
, and received them with full consciousness and great devotion. A short time before he breathed his last, holding his crucifix in his hands, he exclaimed, “O my God! how sweet it is to die in Thine arms!”
On the 13th of December 1803, at the age of seventy-two, Father Grou died at Lulworth Castle, where the Weld family had so nobly and generously offered him hospitality—a hospitality which he richly repaid by his excellent counsels, and by writing for Mr. Weld and his children some of his most valuable ascetic works.
His manuscripts, which were numerous, were given up to his former companions, who in 1815 published L’Intérieur de Jesus et de Marie (The Inner Life of Jesus and Mary), an esteemed work which has been reprinted several times since.
Works
Characteristics of true devotion Full view at Google Books.The Christian Sanctified by the Lord's Prayer
The Hidden Life of the Soul Full view at Google Books.
How to Pray
The Interior of Jesus and Mary.
The Ladder of Sanctity
A Little Book on the Love of God
Self-consecration
Manual for Interior Soul Limited preview at Google Books. Read at archive.org
Meditations on the Love of God
The Practical Science of the Cross
The Spiritual Maxims of Père Grou
Jean Nicolas Grou's writings are also listed at the Open Library and Library Thing.