French school of spirituality

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The French school of spirituality was the principal devotional influence within the Catholic Church from the mid-17th century through the mid-20th century, not only in France but throughout the Church in most of the world. A development of the Catholic Reformation like the Spanish mystics and the Society of Jesus, it focused the devotional life of the Catholic faithful on a personal experience of the person of Jesus and the quest for personal holiness. It was perhaps more concrete than the Iberian example and thus easier to teach, but it shared with the Spanish saints their focus on the divine person. This movement in Catholic spirituality had many important figures over the centuries, the first being its founder, Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle (1575–1629), along with St. Francis de Sales, who in 1877 was declared a Doctor of the Church.