LETOURNEUX, NICOLAS. - Preacher and ascetical writer, b. at Rouen on 30 Apr. 1640, d. at Paris on 28 Nov. 1686. He soon distinguished himself at Rouen as a preacher, so much so that in 1675 the French Academy awarded him the Balzac prize for eloquence.
Having obtained a benefice at the Ste Chapelle and an annual pension from the king, he came to Paris; but, preferring retreat and silence, he went to Port-Royal, where his friend Le Maistre de Sacy nevertheless urged him to resume preaching. He devoted himself to it with the greatest success, owing to his clarity and simplicity, enlivened by a great fire of zeal. In 1682 he retired permanently to Maine, as prior of Villier-sur-Fère.
He left several works, esteemed by his contemporaries: Le Catéchisme de la Pénitence (1676); Principes et règles de la vie chrétienne (1671); a translation of the Breviary (4 vols., 1688), which was censured by the ecclesiastical authority of Paris and defended by Arnauld. A posthumous work, L'année chrétienne (13 vols., 1685 ff., completed by Ruth d'Ans), was placed on the Index on 7 Sept.