A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Arnauld, (Mary Angelica)
This lady, whose knowledge and virtue were celebrated from a child, was the first that sought to bring back the simplicity of manners and self-denial which were known in cloisters, at their first institution. She herself gave the example of disinterestedness humility, and obedience, and wrought such a happy change in her sisterhood, that she was sent for, at the age of twenty, to Maubisson, to reform that great abbey, where she remained five years. It was here she became acquainted with Francis de Sales, afterwards canonized, who held her in high esteem. On her return to Port Royal, her assiduities never relaxed till her death. Her sister Catherine Agnes was a nun also, and author of two little books, Le Chapelet secret du Saint Sacrament, and l'Image de la Religieuse parfaite et imparfaite. The first was censured by the Sorbonne, as liable to mislead the ignorant. She died 1671, aged 77. She had been 72 years a nun, so that she must have taken the veil at the age of five years, which seems an absurdity.