Abstract: On September 25, 1609, the French abbess Angélique Arnauld refused her parents entry to her abbey. The love/hate relationship between the abbess and her father originated in her childhood. Stories about it relate to the abbess, her relatives, and outsiders. Cutting herself off from her family roots, the abbess then flourished in her monastic vocation. This act illustrates the moral and legal conflict between natural authority and that of the Church. Port-Royal thus became the first abbey of the Reformed Cistercians.
