Saint John Mary Vianney

Saint John Mary Vianney, known as the Curé of Ars, was a French priest who for more than forty years led the parish of the small village of Ars near Belley. The Church honors him as the patron of parish priests. His liturgical memorial falls on August 4.

He was born on May 8, 1786, in Dardilly near Lyon, into a poor but deeply believing farming family, and was baptized the same day. From childhood he worked in the fields and tended the animals, and his mother taught him his prayers. He grew up during the French Revolution, when priests faithful to the Church had to go into hiding. He made his first confession at home and received his First Communion in a barn, during a Mass celebrated in secret.

At seventeen he still could not read or write, yet he felt called to the priesthood. Study came to him only with great difficulty. He was helped by priests who saw more in him than his lack of schooling, above all Father Balley, the parish priest of Écully. He was ordained a priest on August 13, 1815, at the age of twenty-nine.

In 1818 he was sent to Ars, a village of 230 inhabitants. The church became his home: he went in before dawn and came out only after the evening Angelus. He visited the sick and families, taught the catechism to children and adults every day, and restored the church. He founded a house called the Providence, where more than sixty abandoned girls found shelter and schooling. Although large sums passed through his hands, he himself lived in extreme poverty and gave nearly everything away.

In time penitents began to come to Ars from all over France. Father Vianney spent up to sixteen hours a day in the confessional, and people said that his parish had become “a great hospital of souls.” Toward the end of his life, as many as eighty thousand people are said to have come there each year. He fasted and kept vigils for sinners; he said that he gave them a small penance and did the rest in their place. Feeling unworthy of this ministry, he wanted more than once to leave the parish and live in solitude, but obedience and concern for souls kept him in Ars. He used to say: “The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.”

Worn out by his labors, he died in Ars on August 4, 1859, at the age of seventy-three. Even in the last days of his life penitents came to his bedside. His body rests in the shrine at Ars, which is visited by great numbers of pilgrims.

Pope Pius X beatified him on January 8, 1905. Pius XI canonized him on May 31, 1925, and in 1929 proclaimed him patron of parish priests. On the hundredth anniversary of his death John XXIII dedicated to him the encyclical Sacerdotii nostri primordia, and on the 150th anniversary Benedict XVI proclaimed a Year for Priests, which lasted from June 2009 to June 2010.