CRASSET, JEAN

Jesuit spiritual writer; b. Dieppe, France, Jan. 3, 1618; d. Paris, Jan. 4, 1692. He entered the Society of Jesus, Aug. 28, 1638, and first taught the humanities and philosophy but later gained fame as a preacher, especially against Jansenism. From Sept. 9, 1656, to Feb. 10, 1657, he was under an interdict imposed by Bishop d'Elbene of Orléans because in his preaching he had accused certain local churchmen of holding Jansenistic views similar to those condemned by Innocent X. He published retreat manuals adapting the Ignatian method of prayer for use by laymen. He catechized the young and directed groups of the poor, of the working class, and of servants. For 23 years, beginning in 1669, he directed the Congregation des Messieurs, a sodality of men at the Rue de Saint Antoine in Paris. Crasset's best known works are: Méthode d'oraison avec une nouvelle forme de méditations (Paris 1672); two retreat manuals, Le Chrestien en solitude (1674) and Le Manne du désert (1674); several books on death and Considerations chrestiennes pour tous les jours de l'année (3 v. Paris 1683); a biography of his spiritual charge, Vie de Madame Helyot (Paris 1683), which contains his own ideas on contemplation; Histoire de l'église du Japon (Paris 1689), a work largely dependent upon Solier (1627) and inferior to that of Charlevoix; the posthumous La Foy victorieuse de l'infidelité et du libertinage (Paris 1693); and La Veritable devotion envers la sainte Vierge (Paris 1679), which Antoine Arnauld tried unsuccessfully to have censured in Rome and which J. De Guibert described as one of the best books published by the Jesuits on Marian devotion. Crasset also composed classical religious poetry rich in rhythm and mystical symbolism.

Bibliography: Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus 2:1623–46; 9:146–148. Histoire littéraire du sentiment réligieux en France depuis la fin des guerres de religion jusqu'à nos jours 5:311–339; 8:289–309. j. brucker, Dictionnaire de théologie catholique 3.2:2032–33. m. olphe-galliard Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique 2.2:2511–20.

[m. a. fahey]