Madame Guyon

Madame Guyon

4 Sermons|2 Books
Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de La Motte Guyon, commonly known as Madame Guyon (1648–1717), was a French mystic and preacher whose teachings on prayer and devotion made her a significant figure in 17th-century Christianity. Born on April 13, 1648, in Montargis, France, to Claude Bouvier, a procurator, and a devout mother, she experienced a turbulent childhood marked by illness and frequent moves between convents and her affluent family’s home. At 15, she was forced into an arranged marriage with Jacques Guyon, a wealthy man 22 years her senior, enduring 12 unhappy years and bearing five children, three of whom survived. Widowed at 28 in 1676, she turned fully to her spiritual calling, influenced by the works of St. Francis de Sales and her mystical experiences under the guidance of Barnabite priest François Lacombe. Madame Guyon’s preaching career emerged as she traveled across Europe, sharing her doctrine of Quietism—a belief in passive surrender to God’s will—which she detailed in works like A Short and Very Easy Method of Prayer (1685). Beginning in 1681, she preached in Geneva, Turin, and Grenoble, advocating an interior life of prayer that drew both followers, including François Fénelon, and opposition from the Roman Catholic Church. Her teachings led to her arrest in 1688 and imprisonment from 1695 to 1703, including time in the Bastille, after church authorities deemed Quietism heretical. Released, she lived her final years quietly in Blois, dying on June 9, 1717, leaving a legacy as a preacher whose writings on divine intimacy influenced Protestant circles, notably Quakers and Methodists, despite Catholic condemnation.
  • Sermons
  • Books
  • Bio