Home › Fathers, Saints & Teachers › Fr. Arminjon
At a glance
| Who | Fr. Charles-Marie-Antoine Arminjon (1824–1885), born and died in Chambéry, Savoy. A Jesuit from 1842 to 1859, ordained a priest in 1849, he taught at the major seminary of Chambéry and then gave himself wholly to preaching. He was an honorary canon of Chambéry and of Aosta and was named an apostolic missionary in 1863. |
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| Standing | Approved teacher A priest preaching in communion with the Church. We found no imprimatur in the edition we could check. According to the editors of a later French reissue, the first edition opened with letters of congratulation from a large number of bishops, which they left out. |
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| The work | Fin du monde présent et mystères de la vie future (The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life), nine conferences preached in the cathedral of Chambéry, with a preface dated May 8, 1881. The French original is in the public domain. The English translation by Susan Conroy and Peter McEnerny (Sophia Institute Press, 2008) is under copyright, so this page paraphrases it and quotes the French, in our own translation. |
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| Weight | A respected voice, not an authority. Where Fr. Arminjon repeats the Church's teaching, it carries the Church's weight. Where he describes details of the end or of the life to come, he is a preacher offering his own reading, and we label it that way. |
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Why Fr. Arminjon matters here
Fr. Arminjon is not a Father of the Church or a Doctor. He is here because of what his book did for a saint who became a Doctor. St. Thérèse of Lisieux read it in 1887, the year she longed to enter Carmel, and it shaped the way she thought about heaven for the rest of her short life. Through her, a nearly forgotten French preacher has become one of the best-known Catholic voices on the last things.
He is also a good example of the site's own method. He takes the end of the world seriously, as Scripture does, and he refuses to set its date, as Scripture does.
What St. Thérèse said about the book
In the account of her life that she wrote for her sister, Thérèse says that at fourteen, hungry to learn, she found new nourishment for her soul. Her father had been lent the book by the Carmelite nuns, and although she did not usually read her father's books, she asked to read this one. In the public-domain English translation by T. N. Taylor (1912), she writes:
“This ‘honey’ and ‘oil’ I found in the conferences of Father Arminjon on The End of this World and the Mysteries of the World to Come. While reading this book my soul was flooded with a happiness quite supernatural.”
She goes on: “I experienced a foretaste of what God has prepared for those who love Him,” and, seeing how far eternal rewards outweigh the small sacrifices of this life, “I yearned to love Our Lord, to love Him passionately.” Her words echo St. Paul: “what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
The best-known line about the book, “one of the greatest graces of my life,” is not in Taylor's translation, which was made from the edited French text of 1898. It comes from Thérèse's original manuscript (Manuscript A), restored in later editions. The French reissue of Fr. Arminjon's book quotes it this way:
« Cette lecture fut une des plus grandes grâces de ma vie »
“This reading was one of the greatest graces of my life.” (our translation)
In the same passage she says, « Je copiai plusieurs passages sur le parfait amour »: “I copied out several passages on perfect love” (our translation), and on the welcome God will give his chosen ones when he himself becomes their great and eternal reward. The editors of the reissue report that she copied and dated a passage from the fifth conference on Monday, May 30, 1887, and a longer one from the seventh on June 4 and 5.
The nine conferences
The titles below are our translation of the table of contents of the French text. The scan we read is unclear in places; the wording of the fourth and eighth titles is our best reading.
| Conference | Subject |
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| 1 | On the end of the world, the signs that will come before it, and the circumstances that will accompany it |
| 2 | On the persecution of the Antichrist and the conversion of the Jews |
| 3 | On the resurrection of the body and the universal judgment |
| 4 | On the place of immortality, or the state of the glorified bodies after the resurrection |
| 5 | On purgatory |
| 6 | On the eternity of punishment and the unhappy destiny of the lost |
| 7 | On eternal happiness and the supernatural vision of God |
| 8 | Christian sacrifice, the means of redemption |
| 9 | On the mystery of suffering in its relation to the future life |
The order matters. The book begins with the end of this world and the Antichrist, but most of it is about what comes after: the resurrection, the judgment, purification, and the vision of God. The last two conferences turn back to this life, to sacrifice and suffering, and show how they prepare us for the next. Thérèse copied from the fifth and the seventh, on purgatory and on heaven.
Conference 1 · The end and its signsChurch teachingFuture
« Le monde actuel, par le fait même qu'il a été créé, tend nécessairement à sa conclusion et à sa fin. »
“The present world, by the very fact that it was created, necessarily tends toward its conclusion and its end.” (our translation)
- Teaching
- The world had a beginning and will have an end. Fr. Arminjon treats this as certain, and with the whole tradition he expects signs to come first. Among the signs that must come first he names the preaching of the Gospel to all nations, the coming of the Antichrist and the conversion of the Jewish people, none of which, in his view, had yet taken place.
- No date
- He is firm that no one can know the day: « La Providence a statué que ce jour est inconnu, et que personne ne parviendra à le découvrir », “Providence has decreed that this day is unknown, and that no one will succeed in discovering it” (our translation). When someone objects that at least the period or the year can be worked out, he answers no: the end depends on God's will and on the completion of the number of the elect, which no one can know. This is the Lord's own word: “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32; see Acts 1:7).
- His own opinion
- He also says that the end is “relatively near,” « relativement prochaine ». He means it as a warning against false security, and adds that even a delay of centuries would be short beside eternity. Like several of the Fathers who expected the end in their own day, he was speaking for himself. The Church teaches only that Christ's coming “could be accomplished at any moment,” even if it is “delayed” (CCC 673).
- Hope
- He ends the first conference on the Church's victory after her trials, the light that follows the hour of darkness: « Donc, ne perdons pas courage », “So let us not lose heart” (our translation).
Conference 2 · The Antichrist and the conversion of the JewsChurch teachingFutureMystery
- Teaching
- The conference's title joins two things the Church still teaches: before Christ comes again the Church “must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers,” in which the Antichrist is “the supreme religious deception” (CCC 675); and the Lord's coming waits for “his recognition by ‘all Israel’” (CCC 674, citing Romans 11).
- What we have not read
- We have not yet been able to check the full French text of this conference, so we do not summarize its details here. Any account of how and when these things will happen is a preacher's reading, not the Church's teaching. For what Scripture and the Fathers say about the man of lawlessness, see 2 Thessalonians and Newman on the Antichrist.
Conferences 3–7 · Resurrection, judgment, purgatory, hell and heavenChurch teachingFuture
- Teaching
- The heart of the book is the Church's teaching on the last things: the resurrection of the body, the universal judgment, the final purification of the elect that the Church calls purgatory (CCC 1030–1032), the real possibility of being lost forever, and the vision of God face to face.
- His own reading
- When a preacher of 1881 describes the place and the glory of risen bodies, or the sufferings of purgatory, he goes beyond what the Church has defined. The Church's teaching itself is brief and full of hope: those in purgatory “are indeed assured of their eternal salvation” (CCC 1030), and our prayers help them.
- Why Thérèse loved it
- What moved her was not fear but desire. Reading about heaven, she wanted to love God “passionately” now. That is the right use of this book.
Reading Fr. Arminjon wellHe preached in a France where the Church felt besieged, and his conferences carry the tone of that time. Read him the way Thérèse did: for his conviction that this world is passing, that God's judgment is real, and that heaven is worth everything. Where he guesses at timing or details, he speaks for himself. He names no one as the Antichrist and sets no date, and neither do we.
For reflection
While it is still in my power
Thérèse wanted to give God proofs of her love “while this was still in my power.” If my time is shorter than I think, what small sacrifice, offered with love, could I give him today?
Sources
- Abbé Arminjon, Fin du monde présent et mystères de la vie future (Chambéry, 1881), conferences and table of contents, from a later French reissue with a biographical note and an introductory note dated July 7, 1964, Internet Archive
- Fr. Charles Arminjon, The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life, trans. Susan Conroy and Peter McEnerny (Manchester, N.H.: Sophia Institute Press, 2008), publisher's page; translators' account at susanconroy.com
- St. Thérèse of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, ch. 5, trans. T. N. Taylor (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne, 1912), CCEL
- Sophia Institute Press, author note on Fr. Charles Arminjon; dates also in the Library of Congress name heading “Arminjon, Charles, 1824–1885”
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 673–677, 1030–1032, vatican.va
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