The saints of unease

This article proposes a comparative study between two spiritual and literary figures of the twentieth century: Marie Skobtsov, a Russian Orthodox nun known as Saint Maria of Paris, and Charles Péguy, a French Catholic poet and thinker. Tatiana Victoroff examines the deep convergences between these two personalities through the lens of what she calls "inquiétude" — understood as a constitutive inner tension between contradictory aspirations. The analysis draws on their respective poetic works, in which this inner struggle finds its most direct expression, before extending into their shared historical engagement in the face of war. The article's contribution lies in bringing to light a transconfessional spiritual and existential kinship, connecting two distinct Christian traditions around a shared experience of the soul in tension.