FRANCESCO ANNAT. — Jesuit, born at Estain near Annat (Rhodez), on 5 Feb. 1590; died in Paris on 14 June 1670. Having entered the Society of Jesus on 16 Feb. 1607, after completing his studies he became professor of philosophy and theology at Toulouse; then rector of the colleges at Montpellier and Toulouse; subsequently assistant to the General for France (1648–52), and in 1653 was elected provincial in Paris. The following year he was chosen confessor to Louis XIV. In this delicate and difficult office he conducted himself admirably and spared no vigilance or care, especially in seeking to divert the king from his illicit amours. He had wished to retire as early as 1663, but remained in his post, at the desire of his superiors, until a few months before his death.
His extensive literary activity was directed against Jansenism, and he spared no effort in numerous writings in Latin and French, opposing the Jansenists with the authority of St Augustine and St Thomas and contributing to the condemnation of the five propositions of the Augustinus by Innocent X and to the bull of 5 Feb. 1665 of Alexander VII. The Jansenists, unable to prevail in the field of doctrine, spared no accusations or calumnies against him, and Pascal made him the object of his attacks in the Lettres Provinciales, especially in the last two, the 17th and 18th, directed personally against him.
Many of Annat’s works were collected in three volumes, Opuscula Theologica, Paris 1866.