Jean Madiran

Who is Jean Madiran?

Jean Arfel, better known by his pen name Jean Madiran was a French nationalist and a traditionalist Catholic writer. He has also used the pen name Jean-Louis Lagor.

During the German occupation of France, he was the private secretary of Charles Maurras and was awarded the Order of the Francisque, the decoration, in the form of a stylised double-headed francisca, that was granted by Vichy France. He contributed to the newspaper Action Française. This was the organ of the movement of the same name and was published from 21 March 1908 to 24 August 1944.

After the Second World War, he retired to Madiran in southwestern France and became noted as a journalist and essayist. In 1948, he published his first book, La Philosophie politique de saint Thomas, under the pen name Jean-Louis Lagor and with a preface by Maurras. In 1956, he founded Itinéraires, a review of Catholic themes, which originally appeared monthly, but which after the 1988 Ecône Consecrations became quarterly, and he remained its editor until publication ceased in 1996. He was also one of the founders in 1982 of the daily newspaper Présent, of which he was editor in chief. This publication is associated with the Front National, but refused to take sides in the conflict between Jean-Marie Le Pen and Bruno Mégret, whereupon Le Pen called for it to be boycotted.