CONSTANTINE of BARBENÇON. — Capuchin ascetic preacher and writer, born in Barbençon (Hainaut, Flanders) c. 1582, died in Bonn on 26 (or 25) November 1631 (or 1632?). Sent from Belgium in 1611 to found the province of Cologne; definitor, novice master, sought-after spiritual director.
Of particular representative importance in mystical literature is the work *Les secrets sentiers de l’amour divin* (Cologne 1623 and repeatedly reprinted up to the present day).
In it, C. shows, with irreproachable terminology, how the soul, exercised in mortification, humility and meditation, is elevated by Grace to knowledge and divine love, ending in total union with God. In his other, more extensive but less widely circulated work, *Anatomie de l’âme et des opérations divines en icelle* (Liège 1635), published posthumously, he effectively polemicizes against a contemporary pre-quietist movement, combating the false interpretations given by the so-called “illuminati” to the teaching of his confrere Benedict of Canfield (q.v.), especially regarding the exercise of the “essential will” of God; he also astutely denounces the deleterious influences of Protestant theories on the pseudo-mysticism of the pre-quietists. The teaching of Fr. C. was utilized by various ascetic authors, such as Cardinal Bona, and especially by the noted Benedictine A. Baker (q.v.).