CRASSET, JEAN. - Jesuit, born at Dieppe on 3 January 1618, died in Paris on 4 January 1692. He was professor of literature and philosophy, preacher, and sought-after spiritual director; but above all he was a writer on ascetical matters with a clear and penetrating style.
His principal works, reprinted many times and translated into many languages, remain useful reading even today: *Méthodes d'oraison avec une nouvelle forme de méditation* (2 vols., Paris 1672); the “new form” is an initiation into the life of mystical union through frequent use of ejaculatory prayers (cf. Bremond, op. cit., VIII, pp. 297 ff.); *Considérations chrétiennes pour tous les jours de l'année* (3 vols., Paris 1863); *Entretiens de dévotion sur le S. Sacrement de l'autel* (ibid. 1678); *La douce et sainte mort* (ibid. 1681). He also wrote: *Histoire de l'Église du Japon* (2 vols., ibid. 1689), a work lacking originality that reproduces, with stylistic revisions, the similar work by Fr. Francesco Solier, *Histoire ecclésiastique des îles et royaume du Japon* (ibid. 1627), extending it from 1624 to 1628.