About the Author

Francois Fenelon was a seventeenth-century French archbishop who rose to a position of influence in the court of Louis XIV. Amid the splendor and decadence of Versailles, Fenelon became a wise mentor to many members of the king's court. Later exiled for a political reasons, he set out to improve the lot of peasants of his diocese. His letters of counsel and spiritual meditations have found a wide audience for more than three centuries.

Robert J. Edmonson, CJ, holds a certificate in French from the University of Montpellier (France) and a degree in French from Middlebury College. His translations of spiritual classics includes Brother Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God and Terese of Lisieux's The Story of a Soul: A New Translation, and have sold nearly 100,000 copies.