Fenelon biography oeuvres de moliere

French archbishop, theologian and writer (1651–1715)

"Fénelon" redirects here. For other uses, see Fénelon (disambiguation).

"François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon" redirects here. For the missionary in New France, see François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon (missionary).

François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, PSS (French:[fʁɑ̃swadəsaliɲakdəlamɔtfenəlɔ̃]), more commonly known as François Fénelon (6 August 1651 – 7 January 1715), was a French Catholicarchbishop, theologian, poet and writer. Today, he is remembered mostly as the author of The Adventures of Telemachus, first published in 1699. He was a member of the Sulpician Fathers.

Childhood and education, 1651–75

Fénelon was born on 6 August 1651 at the Château de Fénelon, in Sainte-Mondane, Périgord, Aquitaine, in the Dordogne river valley, the second of the three children of Pons de Salignac, Comte de La Mothe-Fénelon by his wife Louise de La Cropte. Reduced to the status of