AMBROSE of LOMBEZ. - Ascetical writer
Capuchin (secular name Jean de Lapeyrie), b. at Lombez on 21 March 1708 into a noble family of Armagnac, d. at Saint-Sauveur-les-Bains on 25 Oct. 1778. He entered the Capuchins of the Province of Guyenne in 1724.
Having freed himself from the scruples that had long tormented him, A. wished to help souls assailed by the same malady through a work that is the principal and finest part of his literary activity: Traité de la paix intérieure (Paris 1757). The work went through many editions in French and was translated into Italian, German and Spanish.
A. also published: Lettres spirituelles sur la paix intérieure et autres sujets de piété, Paris 1776 (Italian trans. by Fr. Fedele da Tortona, Turin 1782). A year after his death there appeared, through the care of two of his confreres, the Traité de la joie de l’âme chrétienne (Paris 1779), which Morsella translated into Italian: Trattato dell’allegrezza dell’anima cristiana, Rome 1783. Other works of his remain unpublished.