Henri Marie Brémond was born in
Aix-en-Provence, the son of Pierre and Thomasine Pons Brémond. His father was a notary; his mother died when he was fourteen. Three of his brothers became priests, two of them Jesuits. A sister became a nun. He attended the
College du Sacré-Coeur in Aix. At the age of seventeen, he joined the
Society of Jesus. He served his novitiate in
Sidmouth, Devon, and received orders in 1892. He then taught for two years. In 1899, he became the editor of the French Jesuit review
Études. Brémond's early works, such as ''L'Inquiétude religieuse'' (1901) dealt with religion and spirituality. He left the Society of Jesus in 1904, but remained a priest. In the summer of 1909 he was suspended for an address he gave at the funeral of his friend, the modernist
George Tyrrell. Brémond made a
sign of the cross over Tyrrell's grave, for which he was temporarily suspended
a divinis by Bishop
Amigo, but his faculties to celebrate Mass were restored later that year. Brémond's attention then turned to the subject of religious sentiment. The same month that he made his submission to the bishop, Brémond began a series of articles in the
Annales de philosophie chrétienne, which were then published as
Apologie pour Fénelon (1910). French historian of spirituality Émile Goichot sees an explicit "...parallel between Brémond's refusal to disown Tyrrell at his death and
Fénelon's conduct in relation to Jeanne Guyon|[Madame] Guyon". Brémond became a prolific author of books on literary topics and Catholicism. Brémond's magnum opus was his
Histoire littéraire du sentiment religieux en France. André Blanchet argues that the book's condemnation was not only due to Brémond's unconventional treatment of the relationship between
Jane Frances de Chantal and
Francis de Sales, but also because of his friendship with Tyrrell, and his portrayal of Fenelon's arch-critic Bishop
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet in
Apologie pour Fénelon, an opinion in which Alastair Guinan concurs. Brémond became a member of the
Académie française succeeding
Louis Duchesne, being elected in 1923 to the seat number 36. He was also awarded the
Légion d'honneur. Henri Brémond died in
Arthez-d'Asson, in the
Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of France, and was buried in the
Saint-Pierre Cemetery of
Aix-en-Provence. ==Legacy==