Albertine de Broglie and Her Lessons on Suffering
By Simonetta Carr - Posted at Place for Truth:
Albertine de Broglie was born into an illustrious French family in 1797, during the French Revolution. Her mother, Madame Anne-Louise Germaine de Staël, was a famous writer and philosopher who held some of the most celebrated intellectual salons in European history, first in Paris and later, after Napoleon exiled her for her political opposition, at her family estate in Coppet, Switzerland.Madame de Staël gave her children, Auguste and Albertine, the best education she could provide, including biblical studies with pastor Jean-Isaac-Samuel Cellérier, an early promoter of the Genevan Réveil. Cellérier’s teachings left an indelible mark on both children, who became devout Christians.
After Madame de Staël’s death in 1817, Albertine, newly married to Duke Victor de Broglie, continued her mother’s legacy of writing and holding literary salons, using these opportunities to promote Christianity among the skeptical upper classes. She was able to return to Paris after the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy.
She also translated religious essays and supported causes such as the abolition of slavery and gambling houses, and prison reform. In 1823, she co-founded the Women’s Auxiliary of the Paris Bible Society, which aimed to promote the reading and distribution of Bibles in a country where they had been long banned. Two years later, she helped lead the women’s committee of the Paris Evangelical Mission Society. Convinced that women possessed unique qualities as evangelists and missionaries, she encouraged their service in those capacities. For one thing, she said, women tend to be gentler and “in general, it is up to us women to soften everything.”[1]
Armed with enthusiasm, Albertine managed her many activities. Her marriage was happy. While formally adhering to Roman Catholicism, the duke attended Paris’s Taitbout Chapel, a center of the French Réveil, with his wife and allowed her to give their four children a Protestant education.
