Jean Leurechon

Life

Leurechon was born in Bar-le-Duc where his father, also named Jean Leurechon, was a physician to the Duke of Lorraine. He sent Leurechon to be educated at the Jesuit university in Pont-à-Mousson but, learning of Leurechon's desire to take holy orders and wishing him instead to become a physician, brought him back to Bar-le-Duc. In 1609 Leurechon ran away from home to return to the Jesuits, and the story goes that this so enraged his mother that she took up a dagger and attempted to assassinate the head of the local Jesuit order. His father appealed to the parliament in Paris, which had jurisdiction over Pont-à-Mousson, and Leurechon was returned again to Bar-le-Duc, where the Duke ordered Leurechon to be held at the convent of the Minims in Nancy. This did not change his resolve, and after a month his parents let him go.

Leurechon taught mathematics from 1614 to 1629 at Pont-à-Mousson, and in 1631 became rector of the Collège Gilles de Trèves, a Jesuit school in Bar-le-Duc. This position reconciled him with his parents, who willed their estate to the Jesuits. At Bar-le-Duc, he also took the confessions of Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine.

From 1649 to 1655 he worked in an army chapel in Brussels. He died on 17 January 1670 in Pont-à-Mousson.