Jacques Maritain

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Lore & Background

Jacques Maritain was born in Paris on 18 November 1882, the son of Paul Maritain, a lawyer, and Geneviève Favre, daughter of philosopher Julie Favre and statesman Jules Favre. Reared in a liberal Protestant milieu, he attended the Lycée Henri-IV and later studied natural sciences at the Sorbonne. There he met Raïssa Oumançoff, a Russian Jewish émigré; they married in 1904, making a private vow to abstain from sex. Disenchanted with scientism, they made a pact to commit suicide together if they could not discover deeper meaning within a year. At the urging of Charles Péguy, they attended lectures by Henri Bergson at the Collège de France, which dissolved their despair and instilled 'the sense of the absolute.' Through the influence of Léon Bloy, they converted to Catholicism in 1906. In fall 1907, the Maritains moved to Heidelberg, where Jacques studied biology under Hans Driesch. During Raïssa's convalescence, their spiritual advisor, Dominican friar Humbert Clérissac, introduced her to Thomas Aquinas; she exhorted her husband to examine the saint's writings, and Maritain found he was 'already a Thomist without knowing it.' He taught at the Collège Stanislas, Institut Catholique de Paris, and Petit Séminaire de Versailles. In 1933 he gave his first North American lectures in Toronto at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, and later taught at Columbia University, the University of Chicago, the University of Notre Dame, and Princeton University. From 1945 to 1948, he was French ambassador to the Holy See. Raïssa died in 1960; after her death, Jacques published her journal as 'Raïssa's Journal.' From 1961 he lived with the Little Brothers of Jesus in Toulouse, becoming a Little Brother in 1970. He was also an oblate for the Order of Saint Benedict. Jacques and Raïssa are buried in the cemetery of Kolbsheim, a village in Alsace.

Reader's Guide

Jacques Maritain's significance lies in his revival of Thomistic philosophy for the modern era and his direct involvement in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. His work spanned metaphysics, epistemology, political theory, aesthetics, philosophy of science, education, liturgy, and ecclesiology. The foundation of his thought is Aristotle, Aquinas, and Thomistic commentators, especially John of St. Thomas. He defended philosophy as a science and the 'queen of sciences,' warning in his 1910 article 'Reason and Modern Science' that science was becoming a divinity usurping the role of reason. In 1917 a committee of French bishops commissioned him to write textbooks; he completed 'Elements de Philosophie' (1920) and 'L'ordre des concepts — petite logique' (1934), which became standard in Catholic seminaries. During World War II, he protested the Vichy government while teaching in Canada, then moved to New York, becoming deeply involved in rescue activities for persecuted academics, many of them Jews, and was instrumental in founding the École Libre des Hautes Études. After the war, in a papal audience on 16 July 1946, he tried unsuccessfully to have Pope Pius XII officially denounce antisemitism. Pope Paul VI, his long-time friend, presented his 'Message to Men of Thought and of Science' to Maritain at the close of Vatican II, and considered making him a lay cardinal, which Maritain rejected. His legacy is preserved at the Jacques Maritain Center at the University of Notre Dame (established 1957) and the Cercle d'Etudes Jacques & Raïssa Maritain in Kolbsheim, founded by Maritain himself in 1962.

Did You Know?

• Maritain and his wife Raïssa made a private vow to abstain from sex after their marriage in 1904.
• In 1901, disenchanted with scientism, Maritain and Raïssa made a pact to commit suicide together if they could not find deeper meaning in life within a year.
• Pope Paul VI seriously considered making Maritain a lay cardinal, but Maritain rejected it.
• Maritain was instrumental in founding the École Libre des Hautes Études, a university in exile that became the centre of Gaullist resistance in the United States during World War II.
• After his wife's death in 1960, Maritain lived with the Little Brothers of Jesus in Toulouse and became a Little Brother in 1970.