Ordained priest in 1647 under the direction of J. J. Olier (q.v.), he exercised his ministry in the parish of Saint-Sulpice; a notable preacher, in 1654 he obtained the patent of ordinary chaplain to the king; but from 1 March 1656 he renounced all and entered the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice. He became superior of the “Solitude,” first director of the Seminary, and finally Superior General (1 July 1676).
The troparion (v.) became the constitutive element of all Greek hymnography (q.v.). The troparion probably has a double or triple origin: derivation from the antiphon (cf. L. Petit, Antiphone, in DACL, I, cols. 2461–87), a hymn of the feast or day added after the biblical part of the Office (compare with the Horologion of the Copts and the hymns of the Octoechos by Severus of Antioch), a hymn of circumstance (e.g., St. Antimus, St. Auxentius, and St. Dorotheus: PG 86, 173–76, 1414, 1416; 88, 1820).