ARVISENET, CLAUDE. – French ascetical writer, born at Langres on 8 September 1755, died at Gray on 17 February 1831. He studied at the gymnasium of Molsheim (Alsace), then theology in Paris, at the college of Laon. Ordained a priest (1779), he was recalled to Langres by Bishop C. G. della Luzerne, who appointed him a canon. During the Revolution, he refused the “constitutional” oath and went into exile with his bishop in Lucerne (1794). In Switzerland he anonymously published the ascetical treatise that made him famous: Memoriale vitae sacerdotalis (Lucerne 1794; 2nd ed. Constance 1795; 27 reprints from 1822 to 1896; new ed. in A. Lehmkuhl’s Bibl. asc.-mystica, I, Freiburg im Breisgau 1906), in a rich biblical Latin, divided into verses like the Imitation of Christ; it achieved widespread success and was praised in Rome in 1801.
From 1795 A. lived in Constance and in other places in Baden. He returned to Langres in 1801, where he published Maxime et devoirs des pères et mères (1801). When the episcopal see of Langres was suppressed by the Concordat (1802) (and united with Dijon), Bishop De la Tour du Pin called A. to Troyes, where he appointed him canon and vicar general; A. spent the remainder of his life there, devoting himself to the ascetical apostolate through his writings and spiritual direction. The new bishop of Troyes (1808–25), E.-A. de Boulogne, having been imprisoned and then confined (1811), A. was appointed capitular vicar for the diocese of Troyes together with E.-B. Tresfort; but after about a year A. resigned, observing that the see was not canonically vacant; the released bishop returned on 3 July 1814.
Adapting and developing the ideas of his Memoriale, A. published ten further works: Sapientia Christiana, Langres 1803; Le Bon Ange de l’Enfance, Troyes 1803 (50 reprints from 1826 to 1886); Manuductio invenum ad sapientiam, Troyes 1803, in French 1819 (38 reprints from 1826 to 1881); Le Froment des Elus, Troyes 1823 (81 reprints from 1829 to 1879); Tableau du christianisme contenant le précis de la vie de J.-C. et des mœurs de ses vrais disciples, there 1824; Moyens de perfection pour une vierge chrétienne, Lyons 1827 (62 reprints 1829–83); La vertu angélique, Troyes 1826 (20 reprints 1829–76); La volonté de Dieu, there 1826 (14 reprints 1830–79). J.-B. Migne published the Oeuvres complètes de A. (in large octavo, Petit-Montrouge 1856), arranging them logically into two categories: a) the duties of all Christians, b) the duties of particular states of life.