Anselme, Antoine

Anselme, Antoine, a celebrated French preacher, was born Jan. 13, 1652, at Isle Jourdain, in the district of Armagnac. Son of a renowned surgeon, he studied at Toulouse, and devoted himself to preaching; he first appeared at Gimont with great success, where he received the surname Petit Prophete, which he always retained. He went to preach at Toulouse; the marquis of Montespan, charmed with his eloquence, intrusted to him the education of his son. Anselme went with his pupil to Paris, where he met with the same success. Madame de Sevigne praised him very highly. In 1681 the French Academy chose him to pronounce the panegyric of St. Louis, and he also preached at the court and in all the great parishes of the capital. In 1710 he became a member of the Academy of Inscriptions; and died August 8, 1737, in the Abbey of St. Sener, which Louis XIV had given to him in 1699. He wrote the odes printed in the Recueil de L'Academie des Jeux Floraux de Toulouse: — the panegyrics of the saints and the funeral orations at Paris in 1718, with his portrait Sermons pour l'Avent, le Carleme, et sur divers Sujets (Paris, 1731): — several dissertations inserted in the enzoires de L'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres (1724 and 1729). See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.