author
Charles Paschal Telesphore Chiniquy
1809–1899
A fiery 19th-century preacher and reformer, he first became famous in French Canada for his temperance crusades before breaking with the Catholic Church and reinventing himself as a Presbyterian minister and controversial public speaker. His life moved from parish missions to religious conflict, political activism, and bestselling polemics.
2 Audiobooks
Fifty Years in the Church of Rome
by Charles Paschal Telesphore Chiniquy
The Priest, the Woman and the Confessional
by Charles Paschal Telesphore Chiniquy
About the author
Born in Kamouraska, Lower Canada, on July 30, 1809, Charles-Paschal-Télesphore Chiniquy was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1833. He rose to prominence in the 1840s as a powerful advocate of temperance, traveling widely through Lower Canada and earning a reputation as one of the movement's best-known voices.
His career took a dramatic turn after disputes with church authorities. He spent time ministering to French Canadian settlers in Illinois, was eventually excommunicated, and later joined the Presbyterian Church. From then on, he became known as a lecturer and writer whose speeches and books fiercely criticized the Roman Catholic Church.
Chiniquy died in Montreal on January 16, 1899. He remains a striking and divisive figure in Canadian and religious history: remembered at once as a charismatic reformer, a religious convert, and a prolific author whose life reflected the sharp denominational battles of the 19th century.