ABRA DE RACONIS, CHARLES-FRANCOIS d'. – French theologian, born at Raconis, in the diocese of Chartres, around 1580, died on 16 July 1646; he came from a Calvinist family that had converted to Catholicism. He was professor of philosophy at the Collège de Plessis from 1609, and then of theology at the Collège de Navarre from 1615.
In 1618 he was appointed preacher and chaplain to the king, and in 1637 bishop of Lavaur. He owes his renown above all to his numerous polemical works, directed first against the French Calvinist Protestants and later, urged on by s. Vincenzo de' Paoli, against the Jansenists, particularly against Pierre de Moulin. He also defended the primacy of the Pope against Martino de Barcos, Saint-Cyran’s nephew. His work in refuting and condemning Arnauld’book (v.), «La fréquente communion», deserves special mention; it provoked furious storms against him on the part of the Jansenists.