A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Arnauld, Marie Angelique
ARNAULD, MARIE ANGELIQUE,
Sister of Robert, Antoine, and Henri Arnauld, was abbess of the Port-Royal convent, and distinguished herself by the reformation and sanctity she introduced there, and also at the convent of Maubuisson, where she presided five years. She returned to Port-Royal, and died in 1661, aged seventy. Her mother and six of her sisters passed the evening of their life in her convent. She was early distinguished for her capacity and virtues. While at Maubuisson, she became acquainted with St. Francis de Sales, bishop of Geneva, who continued through his whole life to correspond with her. She displayed peculiar skill and sagacity in the changes she introduced into the convents under her control. Careful to exact nothing of the nuns of which she had not set the example, she found, in the respect and emulation she Inspired, an engine to which constraint is powerless. Self-denial, humility, and charity, were among the most prominent of her virtues.