Cahiers Péguy

A blog

Early in 1910, what Péguy had confidentially told [his friend Joseph] Lotte [in September 1908: “I have found faith again. I am a Catholic.”] was to be publicly avowed in a work which will not doubt make its author’s name last for centuries in Catholic France. It bore a long title which reminds one of a heavy granite lintel over an ancient doorway: “The Mystery of the Charity of Joan of Arc.” Very few noticed the book, fewer still realized its importance. The “Mystery” was published as a Cahier but probably the subscribers did not even cut its leaves.
—Julian Green, Introduction to Charles Péguy, Basic Verities: [Selected]Prose and Poetry (1943).

There was no question of being seen or of not being seen. It was the innate being of work which needed to be well done.
—Péguy (1913).