Sophie Swetchine

She was born Sofia Petrovna Soymonova (sometimes Soïmonov or Soymanof) on 22 November 1782 in Moscow, the daughter of Secretary of State Peter Alexandrovich Soimonov (1734–1801) and his wife, Catherine Boltin (1756–1790).

Even though he was his wife's senior by 25 years, their relationship was described by contemporaries as a good one, though the couple did not have children, which is said to have caused her suffering.

Coming from Russian Orthodoxy, in 1815 she became a Catholic, largely as the result of reading the writings of Joseph de Maistre, though she had also been under the influence of the Jesuits.

At it she often received Russian exiles, but her guests, who included Victor Cousin and Alexis de Tocqueville, were generally drawn from various sectors of French literary, political and ecclesiastical high society, but with a special interest in the Church.

Hence among her guests were prominent Catholics such as the Archbishop of Paris, Hyacinthe-Louis de Quélen, the abbé Félix Dupanloup, later Bishop of Orleans, and Prosper Guéranger, the founder of the Abbey of Solesmes.