ABOUT GABRIELLE

December 24th, 1632 - March 5th, 1703

Gabrielle Suchon was a writer and a philosopher in France during the 17th century. She was self-educated, considering the state of a woman’s right to a public education at that time was nonexistent. Suchon studied many of the ancient philosophers such as Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle, as well as devoting much of her time to studying her religious texts and scripture. A devout nun and a brilliant scholar, Gabrielle Suchon was one of the first to pioneer the radical idea that women deserved to be educated. She devoted much of her time, studies, and writings to defending a woman’s right to education, using both her knowledge and her faith to defend her claims that the world would benefit from allowing women more freedoms, authorities, and rights. Suchon was not only a nun, but also something she had called a “naturalist,” in which she practiced and promoted celibacy for the sake of her freedom and autonomy as a woman. 
Unfortunately, the information still available of the life of Gabrielle Suchon is sparse considering that our knowledge of her whereabouts are almost exclusively confined to the church documents dated during the time she served as a nun. Following the death of her father in 1645, she joined a convent in Semur-en-Auxois. The church documents tell us that Suchon was then transferred from Semur to the Jacobin Monastery at Langres. Though, interestingly, it is speculated that this transfer may have been her way of covering up an alleged escape to Rome. This is cut even shorter considering that Suchon petitioned the Pope to contest her vows in late 1672. It is known that within a few months, she was a layperson again. Despite this, Suchon never married, and spent her time writing and teaching until she died in Dijon, France in 1703.