Esprit Flechier, a French pulpit orator, born at Pernes, June 10, 1632, died in Montpellier, Feb. 16, 1710. He was educated at Avignon, in the college of the "Fathers of the Christian Doctrine," gave special attention to the culture of eloquence, was noted for the elegance of his language, taught rhetoric at Narbonne, and in 1661 went to Paris, where without fortune or friends he became catechist in a parish. A Latin poem which he wrote, describing the famous tournament celebrated by Louis XIV. in 1662, was much admired, and he soon after became preceptor in the house of Caumartin, a councillor of state, and was admitted into the society of the hotel de Rambouillet. Many of his sermons were highly esteemed, but his funeral oration on the duchess of Montausier in 1672 was his first great triumph. His funeral oration on Turenne, delivered in Paris in 1676, was a masterpiece of art, and placed him, in the opinion of many of his contemporaries, by the side of Bossuet. Among his other funeral orations, those on the first president Lamoi-gnon, on Queen Marie Therese, and on the chancellor Letellier, were most admired.

Louis XIV. bestowed upon him first the abbey of St. Severin, then the position of reader to the dauphin, the bishopric of Lavaur in 1685, and that of Nimes in 1687. The edict of Nantes having been revoked shortly before the appointment of Flechier to his last diocese, which contained numerous Protestants, he found great difficulty in the ecclesiastical government of it. His conduct, however, made him equally dear to the Catholics and Protestants of Languedoc, who united in mourning his death. Besides his funeral orations, he left Panegyriques des saints (3 vols.), Vie de Theodose le Gra7id, and L'Historie du cardinal Ximenes. Flechier's charity and amiability appear especially in his letters. A complete edition of his works was published at Nimes in 1782 (8 vols. 8vo).