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!
The message of the Holy Curé
The message of the Holy Curé of Ars for us today, summed up in a few points…
Long moments spent before the tabernacle, true intimacy with God, total abandonment to his will, a transfigured gaze ... so many elements that struck those who met him and allowed people to perceive the depth of his prayer life and of his union with God. Not to speak of his great joy and his true friendship with God: “I love you, Oh my God, and my only desire is to love you until my life’s last breath”. A friendship that implies reciprocity, like two pieces of wax, J. M. Vianney explained, that, once fused together, can no longer be separated or identified; this is what happens to our soul with God when we pray…
The beating heart: celebrating and adoring the Eucharist
“He is there!” exclaimed the Holy Curé looking at the tabernacle. Man of the Eucharist, celebrated and adored: “There is nothing greater than the Eucharist”, he exclaimed. Perhaps what struck him the most was to realize that his God was there, present for us in the tabernacle: “He is waiting for us!”. Coming to the realization of the real presence of God in the Blessed Sacrament was perhaps one of his greatest graces and one of his greatest joys. Giving God to men and men to God: the Eucharistic sacrifice soon became the heart of his days and of his pastoral ministry.
Obsessed with the salvation of men
It is perhaps what best summarizes who the Holy Curé was during his 41 years in Ars. Obsessed with his own salvation and with that of others, especially of those who came to him or who were entrusted to him. As Pastor, God will “hold him accountable”, he said. So that each person might appreciate the joy of knowing God and of loving him, of knowing that He loves us … for this J. M. Vianney labored without rest.
Martyr of the confessional
Beginning in 1830, thousands of people will come to Ars to confess with him, and more than
At the heart of his parish, a man of authentic sociality
“No one knows all that the Holy Curé did in terms of social works,” relates one of his biographies. Seeing in each of his brothers the presence of the Lord, he did not rest in assisting them, helping them, alleviating their sufferings and their wounds, creating the conditions so that each one felt free and fulfilled. Orphanage, schools, caring for the poorest and the sick, tireless builder … nothing escapes him. He accompanies families and strives to protect them from all that could destroy them (alcohol, violence, selfishness…). In his village, he tries to consider the person in all his dimensions (human, spiritual, social).
Patron of all the pastors of the universe
Beatified in 1904, he will be declared the same year, on 12 April, patron of the priests of
The Curé of Ars, a great brother in the priesthood, to whom every priest of the world can come to entrust his ministry or his priestly life.
A universal call to holiness
“I will show you the way of Heaven”, he had responded to the pastor who showed him the road to Ars, that is, I will help you become a saint. “Where the saints pass, God passes with them!” he will later explain. In the end, he invited everyone to let themselves be made holy by God, to use every means to find this union with God, here below and for eternity.
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