Port-Royal-des-Champs Abbey

Port-Royal-des-Champs was an abbey of Cistercian nuns in Magny-les-Hameaux, in the Vallee de Chevreuse southwest of Paris, established in 1204. It became famous after 1609, when the abbess Mother Marie Angelique Arnauld reformed its discipline, and the Arnauld family then became its patrons. In 1625 most of the nuns moved to a new house in Paris, so the older abbey became known as Port-Royal of the fields. At the original site several schools were founded, the Little Schools of Port-Royal, which were famous for the quality of their teaching and educated the playwright Jean Racine. From 1634 the abbey was closely tied to Jansenism, and it was linked with Blaise Pascal and with the Logique de Port-Royal, a vernacular logic textbook of 1662 by Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole.