2023-08-04 07:01:00
August 4, 2023 / 12:01 am
Every August 4th the Catholic Church celebrates Saint John the Baptist Mary Vianney (1786-1859), the Holy Curé of Ars, patron of all priests and, in a special way, of those who serve as parish priests.
St. John Mary is affectionately called ‘Holy Curate of Ars’, in French Curé d’Ars (literally, ‘the parish priest of Ars’) after the name of the French village where he was priest and parish priest: Ars-sur-Formans, located it is 30 km from Lyon.
a rocky start
Saint John Mary Vianney was born in Dardilly (France) on May 8, 1786. He was the third of six brothers, members of a peasant family.
He studied for a brief time at the community school in his town. Then, in 1806, he entered the newly created special school for ecclesiastical aspirants. There he had his first academic troubles: Juan María seemed quite limited for the study.
With a lot of effort he managed to acquire the minimum knowledge in arithmetic, history, and geography, while with Latin everything was uphill for him. Unfortunately for him, this is the ecclesiastical language par excellence, and only for that reason could his teachers have closed the doors of training. However, it was not. One of his classmates, Matthias Loras, future Bishop of Dubuque, used to help him with the lessons and so Juan Bautista María was able to save the subject.
That same year, 1806, the saint would be exempted from military service for being a candidate for the priesthood. This situation continued until 1809, the year in which he was recruited for Napoleon’s army and sent to Lyon. His destiny would be to join the invading forces in Spain.
On January 6, 1810, Juan María deserted, posing as a certain Jerónimo Vincent. He had to hide for a while until he arrived, in October of that same year, at Father Balley’s house. On May 28, 1811, the saint would receive the tonsure.
Humble priest, humble priest
At the age of 26, Juan María entered the Verrieres Minor Seminary, where he could take philosophy in French – which softened his studies. There he was a classmate of Saint Marcellin Champagnat, founder of the Marists.
He was ordained a priest on August 13, 1815 and sent to Ecully as an assistant to Monsignor Don Balley, an old friend of Juan María, the first to encourage him in his priestly vocation.
Balley had done, long ago, even the unspeakable for the young priest: he had defended him after being expelled from the Major Seminary for lack of suitability for studies. Now, Juan María was next to Don Balley, his tutor and protector.
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Upon Balley’s death, Juan María Vianney was sent as a clergyman to Ars, a tiny town of 250 inhabitants, almost all of them poor. From that town, the “last of his diocese and perhaps of all France”, the priest would start a spiritual revolution that would change his nation forever.
snatching souls from the devil
Saint John Mary Vianney is considered the paradigm of every good confessor. He possessed extraordinary gifts such as prophecy or the ability to ‘go inside’ the human soul. His intuitive spirit, permeated with grace, was able to penetrate the hidden intentions of the hearts of those who approached him to receive absolution.
Fr. Vianney was also a man of great humility and discernment, indispensable virtues that made him a model pastor.
On repeated occasions he was the target of direct attacks from the devil, which he successfully faced thanks to his light soul, always facing Heaven and strengthened by mortification, prayer and service. With them the Grace of God sticks inside.
His pastoral zeal – authentic passion for the salvation of souls – led him to spend long hours in the confessional, almost daily, with the purpose – as he used to say – of “snatching souls from the devil”.
Fast and light to land blows
The parish priest lived detached from material things, to which he treated with the freedom of the children of God: at one time he even gave away his own bed!, and acquired the habit of sleeping on the floor of his room.
He also led an ascetic life: he habitually practiced fasting and when he didn’t, it was enough for him to eat something very simple. He used to say that “the devil fears not so much discipline and leather shirts as he fears the reduction of food, drink and sleep.”
always fought with the devil
The episodes in which the devil tried to intimidate or distract him without success are quite well known: on one occasion he made his house shake for up to 15 minutes to make him stop praying; on another occasion he wanted her to leave the mass he was celebrating causing a fire in his room. The Saint handled that moment with exemplary serenity: without moving from the altar. He just asked one of the altar boys to ‘go and put out the fire.’
Also, certainly, there were terrible nights, in which the demon made loud noises to keep him from sleeping, while he mocked suggesting that he break the fast: “enough is enough”. Nevertheless, after having struggled tenaciously, with a sure heart, in the arms of the Virgin Mary, the Curé d’Ars fell asleep as if he were a child.
It is charity that transforms the world
Saint John Mary Vianney also had to live through troubled times, such as those after the French Revolution. One of the sad balances of this political process was the atmosphere of disbelief and lack of hope among the people. Many strayed from the faith and the number of those who did not want to know more about God was increasing.
The Curé of Ars then proposed to meet this great need by devoting more effort to the preparation of his sermons. The saint spent whole nights in the sacristy composing and memorizing what he was going to say, aware of the fragility of his memory, making every effort to preach well, make himself understood and transmit the Gospel fully.
As the parish priest was very sensitive to the needs of his flock, he kindly dealt with the instruction of the children in the catechism, and tried to combat the bad customs that separated the people from the Church, especially those referring to the Sunday obligation. He fought so that the workers of Ars were not forced to work on weekends, as well as so that the taverns remain closed on Sunday and people go to mass.
More than once he sparked controversy among his parishioners when he condemned that they waste money and time on superfluous entertainment. In one of his homilies he even said: “The tavern is the devil’s shop, the market where souls are lost, where family harmony is broken.” He was right.
A parish is ‘Mary’s territory’
Over time, his popularity grew a lot and thousands of people came to Ars, even coming from far away, to confess to him. Saint John Mary was a man of deep love for the Virgin Mary, to whom he consecrated his parish and his priestly service.
On Saturday, August 4, 1859, the Holy Curé of Ars left for the Father’s House. He was 73 years old. He was canonized on the Feast of Pentecost in 1925 by Pope Pius XI.
This August 13 will be the 208th anniversary of his priestly ordination, carried out in 1815.
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If you want to know more about Saint John Mary Vianney, you can read the following article from the Catholic Encyclopedia: https://ec.aciprensa.com/wiki/San_Juan_Bautista_María_Vianney.
You can read more about the life of this saint here:
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