Jacques Maritain (1882–1973), a Frenchman, a layman, and a convert to Catholicism, became one of the most prominent figures in the Thomistic Revival. During World War II, the Maritains found themselves with other exiles in New York, and Raïssa wrote two volumes of memoirs, We Have Been Friends Together and Adventures in Grace, which were avidly read. They made American readers feel like members of the group of pre-war friends of the Maritains, most of whom had also attended the Thomistic seminars arranged annually at the Maritains’ home in Meudon, outside Paris. Jacques was a philosopher with a difference. When he came into the Church from an atheistic period, and Raïssa too—she having abandoned the Judaism of her girlhood—their godfather was the tempestuous Léon Bloy, whose novel The Woman Who Was Poor contained the memorable line, “There is only one tragedy, not to be a saint.” Under the aegis of Thomas Aquinas, the couple saw the intellectual and spiritual lives as complementary. Philosophers too should be in pursuit of holiness. There is no need to say how countercultural this was. As narrated by Raïssa, their lives inspired generations of artists, writers, musicians, poets, theologians, and philosophers. Theirs was an integral Thomism.
–Ralph McInerny, I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You: My Life and Pastimes, 145
