While fighting a duel, he was saved from a fatal sword-thrust by a book of the Rule of St. Benedict which he carried in his pocket.
Seeing the finger of God in this, he took the Benedictine habit at the monastery of St-Remi at Reims in 1658.
Shortly after his elevation to the priesthood he was appointed subprior of St-Faron at Meaux, but a year later resigned this position.
The general chapter of 1687 appointed him prior of Rebais in the Diocese of Meaux, but he was ordered by the king to resign his office in 1689.
The remainder of his life he spent in literary pursuits at the Abbey of St-Denis near Paris, where he died.