Autobiography of Madame Guyon. Complete in Two Parts

Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon, often called Madame Guyon, was a French Christian mystic, one of the largest representatives of Quietism. In the history of the world, few people have reached the high degree of spirituality that Madame Guyon has achieved. She was born in a vicious age and in a nation marked by its degeneration; nurtured and raised in the church, as debauched as the world into which he was built; pursued at every stage of her career. She groped her way through spiritual desolation and ignorance, yet she rose to the highest pinnacle of excellence in spirituality and Christian piety. She lived and died in the bosom of the Catholic Church; but she was tormented and suffered; was abused and imprisoned for years by the higher authorities of that church. Her only crime was that she loved God; the basis of her activity was found in her supreme devotion and immense attachment to Christ. When they demanded money and property from her, she willingly gave them up, even to her impoverishment, but this did not work. The crime of love for one in whom her whole being was consumed could never be mitigated or forgiven. She loved only to do good to bodies and souls her brethren, and to such an extent she was filled with the Holy Spirit and the power of God that she worked miracles in her time and did not cease to noticeably influence the following ages.