Anthoine Singlin (1607–1664) was a FrenchJansenist Catholic priest, best known as a member of the Jansenist community atPort-Royal-des-Champs and as head of thePetites écoles de Port-Royal (set up by his friendJean du Vergier de Hauranne).

Anthoine Singlin began his priestly career besideVincent de Paul, at the hospice de la Pitié inParis. He was then a devoted disciple ofJean du Vergier de Hauranne, abbot of Saint-Cyran and spiritual director of the monastery ofPort-Royal. When he was imprisoned in theBastille on the orders ofcardinal Richelieu (from 1638 to 1643), he declared Anthoine Singlin's spiritual training complete and made him his intermediary between prison and the nuns andSolitaires at the monastery.

WhenJean du Vergier de Hauranne died in 1643, some months after leaving prison, Anthoine Singlin accepted the post ofalmoner and spiritual director of the community, despite his own wishes to live a more retired life. Even so, in 1637 he set upPort-Royal-des-Champs's famousPetites écoles de Port-Royal, withJean Hamon and the other Solitaires. His correspondence, recently studied and annotated, is a valuable witness to the practicalities of the monastery's life.

Anthoine Singlin continued Saint-Cyran's work spiritually, gaining a great reputation due to his words' simplicity. Uncompromising, charitable and renouncing the world, he became official confessor of Port-Royal in 1648. The problems caused by the signing of theformulary of Alexander VII in 1661 forced him to flee the monastery, then to try not to sign, all to cause as little scandal as he could. Taking refuge at the home of theduchesse de Longueville at Paris, where he died 3 years later in 1664.

Anne-Claire Josse,Lettres d'Antoine Singlin. Edited by Anne-Claire Josse, Paris, Nolin, 2003, 553 p.

Thérèse Monthéard, « Quelques personnages illustres » inChroniques de Port-Royal n°54, 2004, p. 50-51.