Self-cloistered in her home in Auxerre in the Burgundy region, Marie Noël wrote poems, songs, short stories, and a journal that documented the struggles of a devout Catholic with questions of dogma and belief. Though she was neither a nun nor an academic, Noël proved herself a capable theologian who could hold her own in discussions with her spiritual adviser, the Abbé Arthur Mugnier, the Parisian priest who was an associate of such writers as Marcel Proust and Joris Karl Huysmans. Her poems have been set to music by Paul Berthier (1948), Roger Boutry (1963), and Marcel Landowski (1982).

Marie-Mélanie Rouget was born on 16 February 1883 in Auxerre, the first of four children and the only daughter of Louis and Emilie Barat Rouget. Her father taught philosophy at the boys' lycée and art history at the girls' lycée in Auxerre. The...