CHEVALIER, LÉOPOLD. - French theologian, b. at Malzéville (Meurthe-et-Moselle) on 13 Nov. 1846 and d. at Nancy on 12 Aug. 1891. Having completed his theological studies at the seminary of Nancy and been ordained priest on 13 Aug. 1871, he was assigned to pastoral care in the parish of S. Leone IX in Nancy, whence he became professor of philosophy (1874) and of theology (1883) at the seminary of the same city. In his final years he was appointed honorary canon of the Cathedral.
A master of the spiritual life, he left unfinished a work that was to comprise three parts, corresponding to the three states—natural, supernatural, and preternatural—in which the person whom he intended to guide in spiritual formation may find himself. Through the various states of Christian life and the various degrees of perfection, he forms and educates him by means of counsels and directives based on the soundest principles of mystical-ascetical and moral-dogmatic science and on the doctrine of the most eminent masters of the spiritual life. His works include: De relationibus inter naturam et gratiam in ordine ad actus elicendos consideratis (lithographed at Nancy, 1881); Theses theologicae (ibid., n.d.); De scientia regimintis animarum supernaturalis (ibid., n.d.).