Simone Weil: Starved Herself in Solidarity With the Occupied

Born the third of February nineteen oh nine in Paris. Died the twenty fourth of August nineteen forty three in Ashford, Kent, England — of tuberculosis, aged thirty four, having refused to eat more than the ration allowance of occupied France even while in England. She was a French philosopher, mystic, and political activist. She worked in factories to experience the condition of the working class. She fought briefly in the Spanish Civil War. She had a mystical experience at Solesmes Abbey in nineteen thirty eight that she described as Christ himself coming down and taking possession of her. She wrote Waiting for God. Her work was published posthumously by Albert Camus at Gallimard. She refused baptism her entire life despite her mystical Christianity — she said she belonged at the intersection, with those who have no church.#SimoneWeil #WomenInPhilosophy #Mysticism