Peter Joseph Arnoudt

Peter Joseph Arnoudt (Aernoudt, Arnold) (born at Moere, Belgium, 17 May1811; died at Cincinnati, 29 July1865) was a Belgian Jesuit writer on devotional subjects.

Life

He entered the Society of Jesus at Florissant, Missouri, in 1831. After the usual course of Jesuit training, he was appointed to teach in the colleges in the Missouri province of the Society. While engaged in teaching he proved himself to be a finished Greek scholar.

Works

His major work is "De Imitatione Sacri Cordis Jesu". It was written to promote devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in fulfilment of a vow he had made in a time of illness. He sent the manuscript to Rome in 1846, and ten years it was approved by Father General Roothaan. The work was published "typis et sumptibus fratrum Caroli et Nicoli Benzinger" at Einsiedeln, 1863. It was translated into English by Father Fastre and published at Cincinnati in 1865. [ [http://openlibrary.org/details/imitationsacred00arnouoft Online reproduction] ] Translations were also made into French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Flemish, and Hungarian. The French translation, published at Besançon, passed through eighteen editions between the years 1864 to 1887. Sommervogel gives the titles of two English, two Flemish, and four French versions of Father Arnoudt's work.
Father de Smet, the missionary, is authority for the statement that Father Arnoudt left at his death the following manuscripts -- a Greek epic poem of about 1,200 verses, a collection of Greek odes, and Greek grammar, and these ascetical works: "The Glories of Jesus", "The Delight of the Sacred Heart of Jesus", and a collection of spiritual retreats entitled "The Abode of the Sacred Heart".

References

*Vanderspeeten, "Notice biographique sur le P. Pierre Arnoudt, de la c. de J." (Tournay, 1873);
*De Smet in Précis historiques (1866).
*In the London ed. of "The Imitation of the Sacred Heart" (1867) and the Tournay ed. (1872) are published notices of the author by Russell and Van den Hofstadt respectively.

Father Arnoudt's relatives in Belgium have preserved forty-six of his autograph letters.

Notes