CHÉZARD DE MATEL, JEANNE MARIE

Foundress of Sisters of the Incarnate Word and the Blessed Sacrament; b. Matel, France, November 1596; d. Paris, 1670. She was a mystic and writer, known for her elevated states of prayer and her infused knowledge of Latin. Although she was an almost illiterate person, she wrote letters and a spiritual journal that have caused her to be compared with Saint Gertrude the Great. Because her devotional writings were framed in technical theological terms, doubts of her authorship were aroused in the mind of Cardinal Alphonse Richelieu. He removed all of her references and then commanded her to write her autobiography and spiritual history. She produced a work of lofty style, replete to an astonishing degree with mystical speculations and liturgical texts. Her institute was authorized in 1633 but not formally begun until 1639 at Matel; it was finally approved in 1644. Her second monastery was erected at Grenoble, and the third, at Paris. Here, on her deathbed, she received the habit of the institute she had founded and made her profession of vows. American branches of her foundation spring from an original foundation in Brownsville, Tex.

Bibliography: l. cristiani, Dictionnaire de spiritualité Ascétique et mystique. Doctrine et histoire, ed. m. viller (Paris 1932–) 2:837–840. h. waach, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 2:1049. m. heimbucher, Die Oerden und Kongregationen der katholischen Kirche, 2 v. (3d ed. Paderborn 1932–34) 2:427–428. st. pierre of jesus, Life of the Reverend Mother Jeanne Chézard de Matel, tr. h. c. semple (5th ed. San Antonio 1922).

[m. j. dorcy]