Born: 22 November 1764, Latvia
Died: 25 December 1824
Country most active: International
Also known as: Beate Barbara Juliane Freifrau von Krüdener; Madame de Krüdener, Barbara von Vietinghoff
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Juliane de Vietinghoff, Baroness Krüdener (1764-1824), a Russian novelist and mystic. She was carefully educated in the house of her father, Baron Vietinghoff, one of the wealthiest proprietors in Livonia, and was early remarkable for intelligence and for a tendency to revery and melancholy. At the age of eighteen she was married to a Russian diplomatist, Baron Krüdener, whom in 1784 she accompanied to various cities of Italy and France. Of a singularly romantic character, she was guilty of numerous indiscretions, which led to a separation from her husband in 1791. After an adventurous life, with a reputation for beauty and wit, in different cities of Europe, she went to Paris in 1803 and published her novel “Valerie,” marked bv a vague melancholy and light and graceiul style, which secured a brilliant success. Returning to Russia, and remaining for a time in retirement, she resolved to change her manner of life and to devote herself solely to the conversion of sinners and the consolation of the wretched. At Paris in 1814 she held religious assemblies in her house, which were frequented by the most important personages. She passed the latter part of her life preaching to the poor and sick, and joyously sacrificing herself for the solace of the wretched. The formation of the Holy Alliance, that strange moral-political movement led by the Czar of Russia, was largely influenced by Baroness Krüdener.