Jean Paul Gustave Ricoeur was born on February 27, 1913, at Valence, France. Little is known of his mother, Florentine Favre, who died when he was just seven months old. His father, Jules, was a teacher of English at the local lycée until he was mobilized for French military service in World War I. Jules Ricoeur was killed in the Battle of the Marne on September 26, 1915. Paul Ricoeur and his older sister Alice were thereafter reared by their paternal grandparents in Rennes. The senior Ricoeurs were devout Protestants who reared the children in a strict atmosphere of Bible study, church attendance, and reading.¹