LA CHIAIZE, FRANÇOIS de. — Confessor and spiritual adviser to Luigi XIV, born on 25 August 1624 at Château d'Aix (Forez), died on 20 January 1709 in Paris. He entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in 1639 and soon taught literature, philosophy, and theology at the Collège de la Trinité in Lyon, where he had completed his studies. He subsequently became rector of the two Colleges of Lyon and Provincial; in 1675 Luigi XIV summoned him to his side as his confessor and spiritual adviser.
In that difficult situation, the man of God nevertheless succeeded in earning the esteem and complete trust of his penitent. From 1675 to 1680, when Luigi XIV could not bring himself to break away from his guilty relationships with Madame De Montespan and Mademoiselle de Fontanges, the father, whenever necessary, especially at Easter, resorted to “political illnesses,” which nevertheless did not deceive the king. This gentle firmness enabled Queen Maria Teresa to spend her final years in the joy of having regained harmony with her husband. Subsequently, when the king married Madame de Maintenon, he always retained a most vivid gratitude toward the man who had helped him abandon his deviations of conduct and regain his dignity before the court and the nation.
(from Lucembourg appare à Louis XIV sur le raport du P. de La Chaize fait à la Sainte Société, Colonia D.R. (an, contra il front).
LA CHAIZE, FRANÇOIS – Father L. C. received by Louis XIV in his bedchamber.
XIV, Lyon 1899; R. Duhr, I Gesuiti, Favole e leggende, Italian trans., II, Florence 1908, pp. 193–200; Pastor, XIV, 2, V. indice: L. Koch, Jesuiten-Lexikon, Paderborn 1934, cols. 314–15.