Translated by Fr Robert Nixon, OSB

     Cardinal Richeliu is today best known as a villain in Alexander Dumas' novel The Three Musketeers, but the real man was a devout priest, a learned scholar and a skillful politician, who helped navigate France through very difficult times.  He was also a best-selling spiritual writer in his day.  His timeless but long-forgotten masterpiece the Treatise on Perfection translated into English for the first time by New Norcia's Fr Robert Nixon, overflow with wise insights and helpful guidance for nourishing a fruitful and sustainable spiritual life, particularly for those who are trying to balance prayer and devotion with complex and demanding secular responsibilities (as he himself did so successfully).