PÉRIER, GILBERTE. — Older sister of B. Pascal, born in Clermont in 1620, died in Paris in 1687.
In 1641 she married a magistrate from Clermont, Florin Périer; the following year he fathered their daughter Marguerite, the protagonist of the famous miracle of the Holy Thorn (1656), extensively discussed in the controversies for and against Port-Royal. In 1646 she joined her paternal family in Rouen, and there became so deeply imbued with Jansenist spirituality that she withdrew into a veritable domestic enclosure, separating herself from her husband with his consent. She assisted her brother until his death (1662), and subsequently bore witness to her devotion to him by writing his life (published with alterations in 1686), together with many fragmentary memoirs of her family.