Jean Racine

Jean Racine was born in 1639 at La Ferté-Milon in France and was orphaned as a small child. He was raised by his grandparents and educated by the Jansenists at Port-Royal, where he learned Greek and read the ancient tragedians. Breaking with his teachers, he turned to the theatre in Paris. His first great success, Andromache, came in 1667, followed by Britannicus, Berenice, Bajazet, Mithridates, Iphigenia and, in 1677, Phaedra. His tragedies, written in rhymed alexandrine verse and following the classical unities, portray characters destroyed by passion. After Phaedra he withdrew from the public stage, married, was reconciled with Port-Royal, and became royal historiographer to Louis XIV. At the request of Madame de Maintenon he wrote two biblical dramas, Esther and Athalie, for the girls of the school at Saint-Cyr. He died in Paris in 1699 and was buried, as he had asked, at Port-Royal.

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Faith: Gave up writing for the stage, married, and became very pious. Source: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)