Jean de Saint-Samson citations

Jean du Moulin plus connu sous le nom de Jean de Saint-Samson est un moine de l'ordre des Grands carmes à Dol de Bretagne puis à Rennes. Il participe et soutient la réforme du carmel de Rennes dite aussi Réforme de Touraine.

Aveugle dès l'enfance, il devient musicien avant d'entrer au Carmel à 25 ans. Grand mystique, il dicte de nombreux traités, lettres, poésies et ouvrages qui seront par la suite publiés. Son tombeau, au couvent des Carmes de Rennes est un lieu de visites et de dévotion importante jusqu'à la Révolution française qui verra la destruction du couvent et de l'église.

Une partie de ses reliques a été remise aux Grands carmes, lors de leur réinstallation à Nantes en 1990. Si Jean de Saint-Samson n'a jamais fait l'objet d'un procès en béatification, son titre de vénérable, attribué par son premier biographe , est resté dans les usages. Wikipedia  

✵ 29. décembre 1571 – 1636
Jean de Saint-Samson photo
Jean de Saint-Samson: 48   citations 0   J'aime

Jean de Saint-Samson: Citations en anglais

“Love which is not humble is a devil.”

From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.

“My exercise consists in a total elevation of the spite above all created and sense-objects.”

From The Exercise of Elevation of the Spirit to God
Contexte: My exercise consists in a total elevation of the spite above all created and sense-objects. By this exercise I am securely concentrated within myself and gaze steadily at God who in a simple manner draws me to the state of simple unity and nakedness of spirit, which is called “simple idleness.” In this state of simplicity of rest I am passively possessed and held above every sense-image. This rest remains mine, whether I am by myself doing nothing or whether I am engaged in activity that is exterior or interior and mental. This is what I can tell you about my interior life: my condition is simple, naked, darkened and without knowledge even of God, in nakedness and darkness of spirit. I am lifted above every kind of illumination existing below this level; in this state I cannot bring into play my interior faculties. They are all without exception drawn and held under the influence of this unique and simple “image.” This image, in fact, holds them in a state of naked simplicity above vision and essence at the highest level of spirit, beyond spirit. It is there that I find myself in the nakedness and darkness of the all-incomprehensible depths, incomprehensible because of their darkness, where everything of the senses, everything specific and created melts down and blend into the unity of spirit, or rather into the simplicity of essence or spirit.

“To possess nothing and to be nothing is to be full of God.”

From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
Contexte: Whoever refuses to follow Christ in His poverty will never possess Him in the abundance of His graces and virtues in this life, nor in His glory in the next. To possess nothing and to be nothing is to be full of God.

“The corruption of the world and of the worldliness is a consequence of the fact that men have no eye whatever for the majesty of God in and around themselves;”

From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.
Contexte: The corruption of the world and of the worldliness is a consequence of the fact that men have no eye whatever for the majesty of God in and around themselves; therefore has God delivered them to the natural and brutal motions of their heart.

“Sing boldly, O spouses of a Bridegroom such as mine!”

From The Epithalamium
Contexte: Sing boldly, O spouses of a Bridegroom such as mine! you, I say, whom are my companions in this fate and enjoyment so happy as ours! Sing at my happy insistence as I will sing by yours, a new song containing endless praises of the infinitely excessive grandeur and love of our Bridegroom, coming to so admirably espouse us, to deiformly deify us of him and in him, and to make us oneself of oneself.

“The forgetting of all things and of one's self, combined with contemplation, makes a man divine”

From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.

“The obedience of those, purified in soul and body in the furnace of humiliation, is of infinite worth to God.”

From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.

“Nothing ever astonishes the really simple person.”

From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.

“Desire, abide, suffer and die unknown for all time; this is true sanctity!”

From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.

“True solitude is in the soul. The soul has as its desert and homeland God Himself, the father and teacher of all souls”

From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.

“Modesty enables physical deformity.”

From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.

“Aspiration, practiced as a familiar, respectful and loving conversation with God, is such an excellent method, that, by means of it, one soon arrives at the summit of all perfection, and falls in love with Love.”

From The Goad, the Flames, the Arrows and the Mirror of the love of God
Variante: Aspiration, practiced as a familiar, respectful and loving conversation with God, is such an excellent method, that, by means of it, one soon arrives at the summit of all perfection, and falls in love with Love.

“Every soul, touched by God, feels and believes in the depths of its being that it is more sinful than all men together.”

From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.

“It is much more trying to be continually tormented by evil men than by devils.”

From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.

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