Saint Jean-Marie Vianney, Curé of Ars, August 8
Curé of Ars (1786–1859)
Feast day on August 8.
The whole world knows the seductive physiognomy of this humble priest, angel of patience, seraphim of love, emulator of St. John the Baptist in his frightful and continual austerities, a perfect model of pastors of souls. Ars, this monosyllable in Latin form, has become attached to the memory of Jean-Marie Vianney, like a title of nobility won on a battlefield. The "Curé d'Ars": these simple words are a description, a portrait, a lesson.
The early years. — What a Christian mother can do.
On May 8, 1786, a child was born at Dardilly, a large village opposite the hill of Fourvière, eight kilometers northwest of Lyons, who received the name of Jean-Marie on the same day at baptism. Father Mathieu Vianey — that is the spelling of the time — was, like his wife, an excellent Christian. Consecrated to the Blessed Virgin from before his birth, like his five brothers and sisters, the child learned early from his mother, a true model of enlightened faith and eminent piety, to make the sign of the cross, to love God, to recite the elementary prayers. In matters of piety, he was a precocious child whose thoughts easily went to God, who was interested in the mysteries of the life of Jesus, in the ceremonies of the Mass, in the stories of Sacred History. In possession of a statuette of Mary, the boy did not part with it day or night.
After God, it was to his pious mother that Jean-Marie was indebted for this insatiable taste for prayer and also for the hatred of sin. "You see, my Jean," she would say, "if your brothers and sisters offended God, I should be very sorry, but I should be even more so if it were you." In this child with brown hair and a lively look, piety and the practice of prayer had not suppressed a certain natural petulance: he had been born with an impetuous character. In spite of this, he already knew how to control himself; He obeyed with such promptitude and perseverance that his mother proposed him as a model to her brothers and sisters.
A little shepherd who is already an apostle. — Love of the Poor.
Jean-Marie had barely reached the age of reason when the Terror raged in France, driving out and putting to death unsworn priests. There were some in the vicinity of Dardilly; the Vianney house temporarily housed some of them. The child had to. attend masses celebrated in secret with his parents, at night. At home, they were obliged to remove the Crucifixes and the images of piety. The child carefully guarded his statuette of Mary. When he has been entrusted with the care of his father's flock, he takes his dear treasure with him. Arriving with his sister Gothon (Marguerite) in the meadows, especially in the charming valley of Chante-Merle, Jean-Marie, while watching over the animals, places the statue in a tree trunk or on a small altar and recites, without fear, his rosary in front of it. He made the little shepherds of the neighborhood pray, organized modest processions with them, taught them prayers learned from his mother, recommended them not to disobey, to blaspheme, in a word, to make himself their little priest. This does not prevent him from playing shuffleboard with his companions and sharing his bread with the poorest.
First communion. — Ploughman and Winegrower.
During the winter of 1795, the child attended the modest school opened at Dardilly by citizen Dumas. He was noted for his wisdom and application and made significant progress in reading. It was at the age of eleven that he confessed for the first time, at the foot of the house clock, to an unsworn priest, Mr. Groboz, of the Society of Saint-Sulpice, and passing through Dardilly. After hearing this, the priest asked the parents to send their son for a more complete religious instruction to the village of Ecully, near two nuns of Saint-Charles who were secretly preparing the first communicants. Jean-Marie stayed for nearly a year with his aunt Humbert, learning and praying. During the Second Terror, in 1799, at the time when the hay was being cut, he made his First Communion at the age of thirteen. The sixteen communicants were conducted separately to the house of the "ci-devant" lady of Pingon. It was in a room with closed shutters, on the outskirts of which carts of hay had been arranged, that men unloaded during the ceremony, that
The Communion Mass was celebrated with great caution. It was a day of happiness and deep joy for Jean-Marie: he would later speak of it with tears in his eyes and would show the children of Ars his modest communion rosary, urging them to keep theirs.
It was also in Ecully, in the parish church, that the young man received, at the age of twenty, in 1807, the Confirmation given by Cardinal Fesch. He then chose Saint John the Baptist as his patron saint of Confirmation; this is why, in the future, he signed Jean-Marie-Baptiste or even Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney.
On the very day of his First Communion, Jean-Marie returned to Dardilly. At his father's house, he helped his parents and his older brother in the various tasks on the farm. In the fields as in the vineyard, he sanctifies his hard work by offering it to God and to the Blessed Virgin. He is a model of patience, charity and obedience for all. With his father's permission, in the parish church reopened for worship, he often made long stops in the morning and evening to worship and pray. When he cannot attend Mass, he unites himself in thought and prayer with the celebrant. On the road, on his way back from work, he recites his rosary; in the evening, before going to sleep, he prolongs the vigil to read the Gospel and the Imitation; his mother must prescribe him to take the necessary rest.
A late vocation that was well tested. — The Priesthood.
For several years, Jean-Marie wanted to be a priest to win many souls. His mother, when she heard of this vocation, wept with joy. The father refused to deprive himself of a big boy, so necessary for the work on the farm. Having already spent a great deal to endow his daughter Catherine and to redeem Francis, his eldest, from conscription, he did not have enough money to pay for his studies. Finally, he authorized his second son to attend the classes of the small presbyteral school in Ecully that the parish priest, Mr. Balley, had just opened.
Because of his ungrateful memory, the serious shortcomings of his primary studies and the long rest given to intellectual work, the young student encountered many difficulties in learning Latin. He prayed, mortified himself and worked, at the risk of ruining his health: progress was almost nil. Discouragement seized him. A pilgrimage made on foot, begging for the necessary bread, to the tomb of Saint Francis Regis, in La Louvesc, chased away despair and improved school results a little.
In 1809, the candidate for the priesthood had to enter the barracks. He fell ill there. The following year, by a series of circumstances in which there was no fault or premeditation on his part and in which it is permissible to see a providential intervention, he found himself legally in a state of desertion and remained for two winters in a remote village in the Cévennes, instructing the children, edifying everyone by his piety.
The general amnesty of 1811 and the early departure of his younger brother for the army brought him back to Ecully where he continued his studies.
His mother soon died. Twenty-six years old, Jean-Marie is studying philosophy in Verrières. He showed himself to be extremely weak. In the autumn of 1813, he entered the Major Seminary of Saint-Irénée, in Lyons, where his lack of knowledge of the Latin language was very harmful to him for classes and examinations; he was dismissed after six months. His teacher, Mr. Balley, instructed him and presented him, three months later, for the ordination examinations: another failure. Finally, he obtained that the unfortunate candidate, taken aback by the imposing jury and the Latin language, should be examined in French at the presbytery of Ecully. This time, the Vicar General and the Superior of the Seminary were very satisfied with the answers. "Since he is a model of piety," said the vicar general, "I call him to the subdiaconate; the grace of God will do the rest. Jean-Marie received minor orders and the subdiaconate on July 2, 1814. Fifteen months later, on August 13, 1815, the bishop of Grenoble, Mgr Simon, ordained him a priest. As they apologized for disturbing him for very little reason, the prelate pronounced, without foreseeing how much his remark would be realized: "It is not too much trouble to ordain a good priest."
Vicar of Ecully, then Curé of Ars.
To the great joy of Mr. Balley the new priest was appointed vicar of Ecully, but the letter of appointment did not yet give him the powers to confess. As soon as he was allowed to sit in the holy tribunal, his confessional was besieged, and the sick asked for almost nothing more than him. The first to open his soul to him was his own parish priest.
Without calculating, M. Vianney spends himself for the good of souls in the functions of the priest: for them he prays and mortifies himself; he edifies them by his piety, his devotion, his discreet simplicity. To the poor he gives everything he has, even his clothes. When he died in December 1817, Mr. Balley entrusted his vicar with his instruments of penance, which did not remain unused: the spiritual son would use them after his venerated father.
At the beginning of February 1818, the parish of Ars was entrusted to the zeal of the former vicar of Ecully. As he signed his nomination sheet, the vicar general told him: "There is not much love for God in this parish; you will put some in it. »
At work for the conversion of an indifferent parish.
This village of two hundred and thirty inhabitants, located on the plateau of the Dombes, thirty-five kilometers from Lyons, kept a religious background, but abandoned Christian practices. The church was deserted; children and old men were blasphemed: on Sundays, four cabarets competed victoriously at the sacred services; no Sunday rest: drunkenness, balls, evenings, were real scourges on good morals. On the morning of February 10, 1818, the new pastor celebrated his first mass in the poor church.
God asked him to convert his parish. He immediately set to work. He kept in his modest presbytery, a peasant house, only the essential furniture; he spends the whole day and part of the night in church, in prayer or in the long and arduous preparation of his sermons. At night he sleeps on branches on the floor, and before taking this sleep, which he shortens as much as he can, he flagellates himself to the point of blood with a discipline with iron spikes. He devoted his little wealth either to relieving the poor or to enriching the good God's household: he often spent two or three days without taking food, prepared himself for nearly ten years the few foods, always the same, which were indispensable to his life. With this he showed himself affable, hastened to the sick, visited the parishioners, leaving to all a supernatural word. To make the church more attractive, he gave it a new altar, bought new ornaments, added chapels, and then waged war by catechisms and Sunday sermons against this great sin of ignorance in matters of religion. It took him eight years of assiduous zeal to shake off the religious torpor of his faithful, to virtually suppress blasphemy, Sunday work, and to dry up the clientele of the cabarets.
The Curé d'Ars had to struggle for more than twenty-five years to deprive his parishioners of the taste and habit of dancing. The ball-runners proclaimed these innocent and very legitimate pleasures. From the pulpit as well as in the confessional, the pastor opens the eyes of these poor blind people: dancing, indecent dress, vigils as they are practiced in Ars, are purveyors of impure passion. From words, the priest took action. He appeared in the public square in order to scare away the dancers like a flock of pigeons; he paid the minstrel or the innkeeper, so that they would slip away at the time of the ball; he had painted in the chapel of Saint-Jean-Baptiste, in the church, this evocative inscription: "His head was the price of a dance." He refused to absolve the young girls who danced or attended the dances.
It's time for great trials. "Ars is no longer Ars."
Good does not work without suffering for the apostle. The preaching and reforms of the Abbé Vianney were well received by truly Christian souls. They aroused in ignorant minds some astonishment, even complaints or murmurs. Only perverted souls, hardened sinners, used insults, calumny, dishonorable outrage against the priest whom everyone regarded as a saint. Sinister letters were sent to the bishop's palace and determined a canonical inquiry.
The ordeal, added to prayer, example and heroic austerity, had transformed the commune. "Ars is no longer Ars, it is a small parish that serves God with all its heart," wrote its parish priest. She was above the others. The whole of the faithful had passed either from libertinism to virtue, or from simple piety to fervour. More human respect; assiduous attendance at church on Sundays; on that day, no more forbidden work; in the fields, in the streets, the Angelus is recited; the conversations are more chaste; religious practices reappear in homes: during the week, there is always a person in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament; Every morning at Mass, a good group of worshippers are there before going to work. A new life animates the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, which was dying. Every evening, at the sound of the bell, the parish meets at the church for common prayer. The processions, especially that of Corpus Christi, are prepared and carried out with the most solemnity and love possible.
Pour les petites filles de la paroisse et bientôt après pour l’éducation chrétienne et l’instruction des orphelines abandonnées, l’abbé Vianney dépensa son patrimoine pour établir cette admirable Maison de la Providence, modèle d’éducation populaire.
Le pèlerinage d’Ars. — En « lutte avec le grappin ».
A partir de 1820, le curé d’Ars prêcha et confessa beaucoup dans les paroisses environnantes à l’occasion des Quarante-Heures ou des missions. Partout sa piété, son austérité, ses conseils, sanctifièrent les âmes. Pour rendre service à des confrères ou à des personnes qui le demandaient, il ne reculait devant aucune peine, le jour ou la nuit, en hiver comme en été.
Pour le voir, l’entendre, lui demander conseil, des fidèles de la Dombes, de la Bresse, du Lyonnais, venaient jusqu’à Ars. Ainsi commencèrent les célèbres pèlerinages, qui chaque année amenèrent dans la paroisse des milliers de personnes de toute condition, de France et de l’étranger. Il y avait des prêtres, des religieux, des fonctionnaires, des incrédules, des pécheurs, des âmes inquiètes, des âmes en quête de la perfection ; ces pèlerins s’en retournaient consolés, guéris, éclairés, convertis, toujours impressionnés par la sainteté du curé d’Ars.
Sinners ran after the humble priest. It was to prevent their conversion that the devil—or the grappling hook, as the Abbé Vianney called it—overwhelmed the latter, for about thirty-five years, with continual and painful obsessions. By blows, cries, noises of all kinds, shocks to the house and furniture, insults and other similar acts, he sought to deprive him of sleep and rest, to disgust him with prayer and apostolic labors. The Curé d'Ars saw in his attacks the arrival and conversion of some large fish. He did not fear his enemy and put him to flight by the sign of the cross. Satan was defeated and ceased his treacherous attacks during the last years of the holy priest.
Amazing doctor and converter of souls.
The ant-hill of pilgrims—as many as a hundred thousand a year—which invaded Ars every day, forced M. Vianney to make long stays in the confessional. God had given him the genius of the guidance of souls; he inspired the taste, almost the hunger for confession: he read consciences, telling each the truth, and advised by a few luminous and wise words. He rose at midnight and went to church an hour later; he confessed those who awaited him; After his mass, he began again until the time of the catechism which took place before noon. About one o'clock he was again in the church to confess until the hour of evening prayer. He spent sixteen to twenty hours a day in the confessional for more than thirty years.
The divine blessings descended innumerable upon souls and bodies. In his humility so profound that it would have sufficed, says Bishop de Ségur, to have him canonized, the Curé of Ars attributed these graces to the intercession of "his dear little Saint," of his chargé d'affaires to God, the martyr Saint Philomena, whose body had just been discovered; he had obtained a relic of it thanks to Pauline Jaricot and had dedicated a chapel in the church of Ars to her.
Death and funeral. "In glory."
On several occasions, Father Vianney had announced his imminent end. On Friday, July 29, 1859, he felt sicker. With difficulty, a victim of frequent suffocation, he confessed, taught catechism as usual: the heat was torrid; The church, full of faithful, was a veritable oven: the priest remained at his post. In the evening he was at the end of his rope; with difficulty he reached his room and went to bed shivering with fever. "This is my poor ending," he announced. He summoned his confessor, the parish priest of Jassans, and confessed with his usual piety, tranquil, without expressing any desire for healing. The disease progressed rapidly. The dying man blessed those who could come near him and the pilgrims who were outside, but hardly spoke except to God. St. Philomena was prayed to heal her great friend of Ars. On the evening of the next day, Saturday, he received, with tears in his eyes, Extreme Unction and Viaticum. Before a notary, and out of obedience, he painfully articulated that he wanted to be buried in Ars, thus renouncing that his body should be transported to Dardilly. The Bishop of Belley ran to bless and embrace the dying man. On Thursday, August 4, at 2 o'clock in the morning, the Curé d'Ars, smiling, entered the glory of heaven. He was seventy-three years old.
At the announcement of this death, great was the sorrow of the parish, of the diocese, of the whole of France. In front of the body, thousands of pilgrims paraded, touching many objects of piety. The funeral, presided over by the Bishop of Belley, was a triumphal procession. The remains were deposited in a vault at the foot of the pulpit. This tomb became a place of pilgrimage and prayer.
Declared Venerable on October 3, 1872 by Pius IX, he was beatified by Pius X on January 8, 1905. Pius XI, on May 31, 1925, canonized the Curé of Ars, and, by a Brief of April 23, 1929, gave him as patron to all the parish priests of the Catholic world; the feast for the whole Church is fixed for August 9.
In the new church of Ars, the body of Jean-Marie Vianney is displayed intact in a gilded bronze reliquary, offered by the priests of France on the occasion of the canonization.
F. C.
Sources consulted. — Abbé Francis Trochu, Le curé d'Ars, saint Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney (Lyon, 1925). Joseph Vianet, Le bienheureux curé d'Ars (Paris, 1906). — J. Verdunoy, In the Footsteps of Our Saints, 2e series (Paris, Bonne Presse, 1922). — (V. S. B. P., nbone 1193, 1300 and 1327).
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