LESEUR, PAULINE-ELISABETH. - Writer, born in Parigi on 16 Oct. 1866, died there on 3 May 1914. She received from her family a careful Christian education and a sound culture; but in her husband Félix Leseur, a materialist and contributor to anticlerical newspapers, she found someone who did everything possible to tear her from the faith, making her read books such as Les origines du Christianisme and La Vie de Jésus by Renan. But Elisabetta soon realized the fragility of the writer’s hypotheses and wished to verify their validity, devoting herself to a more thorough study of religion, the Gospel, and s. Tommaso d'Aquino. She thus made her spiritual life more intense and devoted herself to the intellectual apostolate among unbelievers and to works of charity.
After her death, her husband discovered her Journal, the reading of which changed his life; he in fact entered the Dominicans and became an active promoter of his wife’s writings, which he collected and published: Journal et pensées pour chaque jour (Parigi 1917; Italian trans. Torino 1921); Lettres sur la souffrance (Parigi 1918; Italian trans. Torino 1920); La vie spirituelle (Parigi 1918; Italian trans. Torino 1920), short treatises on the interior life; Lettres à des incroyants (Parigi 1922; Italian trans. Torino 1924).