ARMELLE NICOLAS, called LA BONNE ARMELLE. – French mystic, born in Campénéac (Brittany) on 9 September 1606, died as a domestic servant at the castle of Roguédas (Arradon, near Vannes) on 24 October 1671. An illiterate peasant woman, she lived as a servant, not feeling called to convent life, which she experienced for four or five years as a portress at the Ursuline convent in Vannes. Combining the active with the contemplative life, she shone through her love of God and of the Cross. Seeking contempt and sacrifice, she received extraordinary charisms and illuminations, admired by theologians and bishops and attested by two distinguished spiritual directors of hers, the Jesuit fathers V. Huby (who wrote of A.: « c'était un séraphin ») and J. Rigoleuc. She was buried, amid the acclaim of the people, in the Ursuline chapel of Vannes.
Armel, Nicolas, called La Bonne Armelle
BIBL.: A.'s friend, Sister Jeanne de la Nativité, wrote Le triomphe de l'amore divin dans la vie d'une grande servante de Dieu, nommée A. N., preceded by a Témoignage by Fr. Huby, Vannes 1676, 1678, Paris 1683, 1707 (reworked by the Protestant P. Poiret, L'école du pur amour de Dieu dans la vie merveilleuse d'une pauvre fille..., Cologne 1704); C.-J. Busson, Vie d'A. N., Paris 1843; H. Le Gouvello, A. N., Paris 1913; H. Brémond, Hist. litt. du sentiment religieux en France, V (1920), pp. 119-138; J. Buléon, s. V. in DSp., fasc. 111 (1934), cols. 860-62.
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“ARMELLE NICOLAS, DETTA LA BONNE ARMELLE.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. I (1948), p. 1148. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/armelle-nicolas-detta-la-bonne-armelle.