Ernest Psichari

Ernest Psichari (27 September 1883 – 22 August 1914) was a French author, religious thinker and soldier. The son of noted intellectual Ioannis Psycharis and grandson of liberal writer Ernest Renan, Psichari was baptised into the Greek Orthodox faith. After a troubled upbringing which saw him attempt suicide over an unrequited love, Psichari entered the army for his national service. Enjoying military life, he re-enlisted in the ranks and transferred to the Troupes coloniales in search of adventure abroad. He saw service in the French Congo and Mauritania and wrote a number of militaristic autobiographical works that proved popular with French nationalists. Converting to Catholicism in 1913, Psichari considered becoming a priest but instead decided he could better serve his church in the army. Fighting in the defence of Belgium in August 1914 during World War I, he was killed at Rossignol during the Battle of the Frontiers.

Early life Ernest Psichari was born on 27 September 1883 in Paris. His father was the Greek-French Ioannis Psycharis, professor of Greek philology at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes and one of the leading champions of Demotic Greek. His mother was Noémi Psichari, daughter of the anti-clerical, liberal historian and philosopher Ernest Renan, one of the most famous intellectuals of 19th-century France. At the age of 19, he fell in love with Maritain's sister Jeanne, seven years his senior. She rejected him for another and on her wedding day Psichari attempted to kill himself by an overdose of drugs. Rescued by his friend, Maurice Reclus (later a noted historian), he then attempted to shoot himself with a revolver. Reclus struggled to stop him and the weapon went off harmlessly. Afterwards, Psichari spent several days staying in run-down parts of Paris undertaking manual work before he was discovered by his family and sent to the country to recuperate.

Military service Completing his compulsory military service as an enlisted soldier, Psichari found he enjoyed the discipline so much that he re-enlisted into the 51st Infantry Regiment in 1904, a move that outraged his friends. Rising to the rank of sergeant but growing impatient with the life of a garrison soldier in the metropolitan army, he arranged a transfer to the Troupes coloniales as an artilleryman. Psichari undertook a tour of duty in the Congo in 1907 under Lieutenant Lenfant, an officer whom he came to idolise. Returning to France in 1908, he published an account of his experiences as Terres de soleil et de sommeil (Lands of the sun and sleep). This was more of an autobiography than a work of travel writing or history and some claim that the writings contain homo-erotic references. He had by now rejected thoroughly the anti-militarism of his youth and praised his army and his nation, becoming an idol of the nationalist right.

Having graduated from the Versailles military academy as a sub-lieutenant, he was posted to Mauritania in 1909, remaining there until 1912. Psichari initially feared that he would be bored in an area of the French colonies that was relatively pacified but soon grew to love the landscape and people of Mauritania. He would see action in a skirmish with tribesmen in which two of his men were killed.

A frequent speaker against Renan's "dilettantism, his antagonism to the Catholic Church [and] his opposition to the military system", Psichari was concerned that his popularity with French nationalists arose simply because he had diverged so strongly from his grandfather's views. He wrote L’Appel des armes (The Call to Arms) in 1913, a military novel that was a record of his experiences and proved immensely popular with nationalist youth.

Following his death he was portrayed by Henri Massis, his biographer, as a supporter of the far-right Action Française leader Charles Maurras, though Maritain considered he would have later broken away from the Maurrasians as Maritain did.