Louis Lallemant

Lallemant , Louis, French Jesuit, b. at Chalonssur-Marne, 1588; d. at Bourges, April 5, 1635. After making his studies under the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, he entered that order in 1605; having completed the usual course of study and teaching which is the lot of its younger members, he was ordained, and taught philosophy and theology for some time until he was made master of novices, an office he filled for four years. Having exercised it with success he was appointed director of the fathers in third probation; but after three years in this difficult post he broke down in health, and was sent to the college of Bourges, in the hope that change of occupation would restore him. The hope was not to be fulfilled; and he died after a few months. Lallemant has been called the Balthazar Alvarez of France, and not without reason. His ideals were no less heroic and his efforts after them as uncompromising as those of that great master of spiritual life. Like him also, he expected from others what he did himself. He set, therefore, the highest ideals before his disciples, especially the Fathers of the third probation, and required them to rise to such ideals. Moreover, as Father Balthazar Alvarez may be held to have contributed not a little, through the great masters of spiritual life he formed, to fix that special type of spirituality which characterized the Spanish Jesuits, so to Father Lallemant’s teaching may be traced in no small measure the specific spirituality of the French Jesuits, which the eminent men who came under his teaching and formation diffused throughout the French provinces. He is known today chiefly by his “Doctrine Spirituelle”, a collection of his maxims and instructions gathered together by Father Jean Rigoleuc, one of his disciples, and detailing very thoroughly his spiritual method.

HENRY WOODS