Maxims of the Saints

Name: Maxims of the Saints
Author: François Fénelon

François Fénelon (1651–1715), in full François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, was a French Catholic archbishop of Cambrai, theologian, and author. He tutored the heir to the French throne and wrote The Adventures of Telemachus (1699), a bestseller across Europe. His Maxims of the Saints defended a life of disinterested love of God, but its teaching on pure love brought him into controversy with Rome.

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First published: 1715
Category: Devotional
Length: 9k words · about 1 hour
Chapters: 5

About this book

François Fénelon's Maxims of the Saints explains his teaching on pure love: loving God for His own sake alone, with complete indifference to one's own advantage, even one's salvation. Drawing on the witness of earlier saints, Fénelon presents the maxims as the common teaching of the church. The book stood at the center of the Quietist controversy in France.