LESEUR, PAULINE-ELISABETH. - Writer, b. in Paris on 16 Oct. 1866, d. there on 3 May 1914. She received from her family a careful Christian upbringing and a solid culture; but in her husband Félix Leseur, a materialist and contributor to anticlerical newspapers, she found someone who did everything possible to strip her of her faith, making her read books such as *Les origines du Christianisme* and *La Vie de Jésus* by Renan. But Élisabeth soon realized the fragility of the hypotheses of the writer and wished to verify their validity, undertaking a more in-depth study of religion, the Gospel, and St. Thomas Aquinas. Thus she intensified her spiritual life and devoted herself to intellectual apostolate among unbelievers and to works of charity.
After her death her husband discovered her Journal, whose reading caused him to change his life; he indeed entered the Dominican Order and became an active promoter of his wife’s writings, which he collected and published: *Journal et pensées pour chaque jour* (Paris 1917; Italian ed. Turin 1921); *Lettres sur la souffrance* (Paris 1918; Italian ed. Turin 1920); *La vie spirituelle* (Paris 1918; Italian ed. Turin 1920), short treatises on the interior life; *Lettres à des incroyants* (Paris 1922; Italian ed. Turin 1924).