Félicité de Lamennais

Félicité de Lamennais (1782-1854), French philosopher and political writer, who attempted to combine political and theological liberalism. Born on June 19, 1782, in St-Malo, Félicité Robert de Lamennais steeped himself in the works of the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and other authors of the Enlightenment during his early years. His first important work, co-written with his brother Jean, in 1808, was a reflection on the state of the Church in France. The book, advocating a revival of the Roman Catholic Church in France, came into conflict with Napoleon’s anti-Church policy and was suppressed by the government.

In 1816, Lamennais was ordained a priest. He soon became the most celebrated clergyman of his day, gaining an enthusiastic following of intellectuals. Together with the French ecclesiastic Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire and the French political leader and writer Comte de Montalembert, Lamennais founded, in 1830, the controversial journal l’Avenir, which advocated democratic principles and the separation of Church and State. The journal was discontinued, however, after Lamennais’s ideas were condemned by the papacy in 1832. With the publication of Paroles d’un Croyant (Thoughts of a Believer, 1834), Lamennais left the Church. He devoted himself to literary and philosophical work until his death on February 27, 1854.