CONDREN, CHARLES de. - Second superior general of the French Oratory, one of the most distinguished spiritual directors of the period, b. at Vaubuin (Soissons) on 15 Dec. 1588, d. at Paris on 7 Jan. 1641. Ordained priest in 1614, he obtained the degree of doctor at the Sorbonne the following year and preached at St-Nicolas du Chardonnet, St-Honoré, and St-Médard. After some hesitation about his vocation, he entered the Oratory at the age of 29. Soon after, Cardinal de Bérulle entrusted him with important missions at Langres and Poitiers, and proposed him to the queen as confessor to Gaston, Duke of Orléans, brother of Louis XIII.
In 1624, elected superior at St-Magloire, he distinguished himself among the most eminent Parisian mystics of the time. Five years later he succeeded de Bérulle as second superior general of the Oratory. Co-founder of the *Compagnie du St. Sacrement*, he tirelessly promoted the Catholic Restoration in France. His body, discovered in 1884, is preserved in the college of Juilly.
All his works are posthumous: *Lettres et Discours* (1642, 1647, 1655, 1658, 1668) and especially the pamphlet *L'idée du sacerdoce et du sacrifice de Jésus Christ*, frequently reprinted, not entirely his own but perfectly known through the principles of his direction. Condren’s doctrine is identical to that of de Bérulle, save for a few nuances; both are to be understood within a "theocentric" framework in opposition to anthropocentrism. While de Bérulle teaches our union with God as deriving from the appropriation by the God-Man of our interior states, Condren extols adherence to the annihilation of the God-Man, who annihilates and consumes us in the sacrifice of the Incarnation and Calvary.
Condren exercised a wide influence over his contemporaries. Fr. Amelote, his biographer, writes: «cet homme était trop du ciel pour être découvert en la terre». St. Vincent de Paul often repeated that he had never seen a man like him, and M. Olier considered him «the greatest light of our century and perhaps of many others».