Jean-Pierre de Caussade was born in France in 1675. In 1693 he became a Jesuit and was ordained in 1705 and took his final vows in 1708. From 1708 to 1714, he taught grammar, physics and logic in the French Jesuit college in Toulouse after which he became a missioner and preacher.
His spirituality appears to be heavily influenced by St. Francis de Sales and St John of the Cross, combining the teaching of self-abandonment and simplicity of St Francis with the Carmelite view of grace as purifying and enlightening the soul. The material that became the book came as a result of his work with the Visitation nuns that began in 1729.
Jean-Pierre de Caussade died in 1751 at the age of 76.