RENTY, GASTON-JEAN-BAPTISTE, Baron of. Lay apostle and ascetic, b. at the château of Bény (near Bayeux) in 1611, d. in Paris on 24 April 1649. In his youth he wished to become a Carthusian; but to obey his parents he took up a military career and distinguished himself in the wars of Lorraine.
From 1638 he withdrew from court life; he then composed *Le cosmographie ou introduction facile à la cosmographie* (Paris 1639) and a *Traité de la fortification* (ibid. 1639). Very pious and penitent, he soon devoted himself entirely to religious activities, as an active member (from 1638) and several times as superior of the Company of the Most Blessed Sacrament (q.v.). He organized assistance for poor English Catholic refugees in France. Following the example of H. M. Buch (q.v.), he founded confraternities of artisans, especially shoemakers (1645) and tailors (1647), who lived together like the early Christians and pooled all their earnings, distributing to the poor what exceeded their necessary subsistence. Several of these confraternities of tailors and shoemakers lasted until the Revolution.
A disciple in ascetics of Bérulle and Condren, he was one of the founders of devotion to the Child Jesus. At his own expense he sent out many missions to the provinces. His biography, written by Saint-Jure, is a treatise on the spirit of spiritual childhood.