SAINT
JEAN MARIE VIANNEY [1786-1859]
- A life beneath God’s gaze -
Life of the Holy Curé – Main biographies
on the Curé of Ars
Born on 8 May 1786 in Dardilly, near
Leon, in a family of farmers, Jean Marie Vianney’s childhood was marked by the dedication
and love of his parents. The context of the French Revolution will exercise a
strong influence on his formative years: he will make his first confession at
the foot of the large clock in the hall of the house where he was born, and not
in the village church, and will receive absolution from a clandestine priest.
Two years later, he makes his First
Communion in a barn, during a clandestine Mass celebrated by a rebel priest. At
17, he decides to respond to God’s call: “I
would like to win souls over to the Good Lord”, he will tell his mother,
Marie Béluze. His father, however, opposes this project for two years, as there
is a shortage of hands in his father’s house.
At 20 he begins to prepare himself
for the priesthood with Abbott Balley, Pastor of Écully. The difficulties will make
him grow: he passes quickly from discouragement to hope and goes on pilgrimage
to Louvesc, to the sepulcher of Saint François Régis. He is forced to dessert
when called to join the army to go and fight during the war in Spain. Abbot
Balley, however, will be there to help him during these years characterized by
many trials. Ordained priest in 1815, he begins his service as vicar in Écully.
In 1818, he is sent to Ars. There he
reawakens the faith of his parishioners with his homilies, but especially with
prayer and with his lifestyle. He feels wanting before the mission at hand, but
allows himself to be enveloped by God’s mercy. He restores and beautifies the
church, founds an orphanage which he calls “Providence” and attends to the
needs of the poor.
Very quickly his reputation as a
confessor attracts many pilgrims who come to him looking for God’s pardon and
peace of heart. Assailed by many trials and struggles, he maintains his heart
firmly rooted in the love of God and neighbor; his only concern is for the
salvation of souls. His catechism lessons and homilies speak above all of the
bounty and mercy of God. A priest who consumes himself in love before the
Blessed Sacrament, totally donated to God, to his parishioners and to the
pilgrims, he dies on 4 August 1859, after having delivered himself to the
extreme limits of Love. His poverty was not feigned. He knew that one
day he would die as “prisoner of the confessional”. On three occasions he attempted to escape from
his parish, believing himself unworthy of the mission of Pastor, and seeing himself
more a shield to God’s goodness than a carrier of his Love. The last attempt
was less than six years prior to his death. He was retrieved by his
parishioners, who had the bell sounded using a hammer in the middle of the
night. He then went back to his church
and heard confessions until one in the morning. The next day he would say: “I behaved like a child”. On the occasion
of his funeral, the crowd numbered more than one thousand, including the bishop
and all of the priests of the diocese, all come to embrace he who was already
their model.
Beatified on 8 January 1905, the
same year he was declared “patron of the priests of France”. Canonized in 1925
by Pius XI, the same year as Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus, he will be
proclaimed in 1929 “patron of all the pastors of the universe”. Pope John Paul
II came to Ars in 1986. Today Ars welcomes 450,000 pilgrims every year and the
Sanctuary offers various activities. In 1986, a seminary was opened to form
future priests in the school of “M. Vianney”. In fact, where the saints pass,
God passes with them!
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