Nicholas Herman was born around 1610 in Herimenil, Lorraine, a Duchy of France. As a young man, he was injured as a soldier in the Thirty Years War, sustaining a near-fatal injury which left him in chronic pain and crippled for the rest of his life. After some time as a civil servant, he entered a new monastery in Paris and became known as Brother Lawrence. It was there that he spent the rest of his life, discovering and following a simple and straightforward way to continually consider God’s presence.

Late in life, Brother Lawrence was visited by Joseph de Beaufort, a representative of the local archbishop. Accounts of four of these visits, written by de Beaufort, along with 15 letters written by Brother Lawrence to various recipients, are included in the publication known as The Practice of the Presence of Prayer, first published by de Beaufort in 1692, in French. An English translation was first published in 1895.

Brother Lawrence died in 1691, having practiced God’s presence for over forty years. His approach to the Christian life has been an inspiration to millions of people in the three hundred and thirty-five years since. It is our hope that you will be one of them.