# Madame Guyon **Summary.** Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon (1648–1717) was a French Catholic mystic and writer associated with Quietism. Her teaching on passive, contemplative prayer drew official condemnation and periods of imprisonment. This wiki references her in connection with [[Spiritual Bypassing]]. ## Substance Guyon promoted a form of prayer centered on inner passivity and abandonment to God, set out in her widely circulated *A Short and Very Easy Method of Prayer* (1685). Her ideas belong to the broader Quietist current in seventeenth-century Catholic spirituality. Church authorities judged parts of Quietist teaching to be in error, and Guyon faced investigation and confinement, including imprisonment in the Bastille. Her defense drew in the theologian Fénelon, whose support of related ideas also brought censure. These events are matters of established historical record. > [!contradiction] > Guyon's emphasis on passive surrender was read two ways. Supporters saw a deep contemplative path of self-emptying. Critics, including the church authorities who condemned Quietism, held that it downplayed active moral effort and the ordinary means of grace. This wiki notes both readings without settling the historical dispute. ## Why it matters in this wiki The wiki examines how spiritual practices can shade into avoidance of hard realities. Guyon's passive, inward model is a historical touchpoint for that discussion, linked to the concept of [[Spiritual Bypassing]] rather than treated as an endorsement or condemnation here. ## Related - [[Spiritual Bypassing]]