Saint John Vianney - Cure of Ars

Saint John Vianney, Curé of Ars

Patron Saint of Parish Priests 

Lord, You placed Saint John Vianney in our path  twenty-three years, ago. Little did we know why, then. The first time we journeyed to the Shrine of Saint John Vianney in Ars, France, with our family, in 1979, we did not know why we were there! As we studied the life of this Curé, and brought pilgrims there, year after year, we still did not have the answer. Priests on our Pilgrimages, always asked to serve at the Altar where Saint John Mary Vianney had celebrated Mass. Still, we did not grasp why, what the Lord was doing all those years. They say, the moment you understand the Lord, you have lost your faith. Every time, I think I’ve got a handle on what the Lord is saying and doing, He says “Surprise!”

We were giving a talk on the Miracles of the Eucharist, one night. As we spoke of This Treasure in our midst, our Lord Alive in the Blessed Sacrament, we found ourselves going to the instruments He uses to be with us in this unequaled way, our priests. We called our brothers and sisters to affirm our priests and the holy role they play in our lives, how they are representatives of Our Precious Lord and Savior with us, and when we love and respect them, we love and respect Him. They are a lifeline; without them we have no Jesus in the Eucharist, no healing from the forgiveness of our sins. When we finished speaking, a priest came up to us. He said,

“Thank you for your words. I didn’t know you could feel our wounds, our loneliness, our need for affirmation. Tonight is my birthday. You gave me the most precious gift. Oftentimes, when I look out at the congregation, from the Altar, I see a sea of boredom, their eyes glazed over. Sometimes I wonder what judgment of me, it is, I sense on their faces. There is so much scandal, so much pain. How do I say, `I’m none of those things; I love you; I love Jesus and His Church, and I want to serve Him by serving you?’ Instead I keep these feelings to myself and keep a safe distance from those I love, God’s people.”

This is about a priest - Saint John Vianney, who was raised up to the communion of Saints as Patron Saint of all Parish priests. This chapter is for those unsung priests, those Curés who are taken for granted, unloved and often crucified. This is for the many hours, week after week, they have sat alone, waiting for us to come to be reconciled with our Savior, through confession, and we have not. This is for every Holy Mass they have celebrated, joining with our Lord as victim upon the Altar. This is for their “Fiat,” their yes, especially on those dry days when they felt nothing.

Who is Saint John Vianney?

Saint John Vianney was a humble priest, hidden away in a small remote village, too small to appear on most maps of France. This priest, like the mustard seed, could not be hidden in obscurity; the gifts of the Holy Spirit he received were to bring thousands and thousands to him. It is no wonder he comes from that section where over a century later, the Charismatic Renewal of France began. The Holy Spirit goes where He wills, when He wills.

It is also no coincidence, he was born close to where our Lord showed His Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. Jesus told Margaret Mary, He was more deeply hurt by the Crown of Thorns pressed on His Heart by His friends, than by the One His enemies mockingly placed on His Head. How many times, Curé did your heart get pierced from a crown of thorns thrust there by friends? Did it wound you, like it did Jesus?

Here again, like with Mother Mary’s Apparitions and Miracles of the Eucharist, we have clusters of Heavenly happenings. Could it be, the Lord goes where there is much need? You could definitely say that of Ars and of France, at the time of John Vianney. Ars was a village of sin and apathy. The Curé would spend forty-one years of dry martyrdom,1as Pastor of Ars, the only parish he would ever serve.

Saint John Vianney was born in France, the France of Heritage, eldest daughter of the Church. This France, in his lifetime, would be ripped apart and aborted by revolution. That malignancy of the spirit was not only to eat away at all the magnificent old traditions of France, but would spread right into the heart of the Church. As anger cannot be contained, those spoiling and destroying did not stop at the aristocracy, but forgetting why they had begun in the first place, turned on Church, guillotining priests and nuns. We share this because, as in the time of Saint John Vianney, if faith, like a garden, is not cared for and nourished, it will die. And die France did, and the Church along with her. Only in places like French Canada and our beloved Louisiana can you see evidence of the glorious Heritage of the France of Yesterday. There, the old traditions and pride in France and the Church flourish, side by side.

Saint John Vianney was one of six children, born in a little village, Dardilly, five miles north of Lyons. His family’s reputation for charity became so wide-known, beggars would pass their name on to other fellow travellers of the highway. There is an expression, angels unaware. Well, one of the beggars they so generously gave to, was a saint. St. Benedict Joseph Labre, affectionately called the beggar saint, stopped at their home sixteen years before John Mary was born. However, we can be assured, the prayers and blessing this holy man bestowed on the family, would be an instrument to bring another holy man unto them, who someday, like himself, would be declared by Mother Church, a Saint.

Saint John Vianney, child of Mary

From his mother’s knee, John began to pray. Helping his little hands to make his first signs of the Cross, she would patiently and joyfully have him repeat, in his sing-song way, the Apostle’s Creed, the Lord’s Prayer and the Hail Mary. His two greatest treasures, as a small child, were his Rosary, a precious gift he received only to have to give it to his younger sister, and a little wooden statue of Mary his mother gave him, to compensate for giving away the rosary. This statue was to be at his side most of his life, a source of strength, a reminder his Lady was with him. Years later, Saint John Vianney, nearly seventy years old, still spoke of the Lady he loved, “The Blessed Virgin is my oldest love; I loved her even before I knew her.”

The neighbors seeing this little boy, first to drop down on his knees each day, when the Angelus bells rang, would prophesy to his mother, “Your John Mary will become a priest or brother.” One of his greatest delights was to accompany his mother to church. She tried to go to Mass each day, her little boy pleading and winning, trailing after her. He listened intently, as she explained the Mass, sharing with him the Divine Mystery, what was really happening. No wonder he developed early, a love and passion for the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle. He discovered at a young age, this Lord Who was alive, and He would become for John Mary, as a priest, his Strength and his Fulfilling Love.

Saint John Vianney - early years

Saint John Vianney loved attending school, but his learning did not end there. As soon as he arrived home, he opened books on the Lives of the Saints. Religious worship was one of the fatalities of the Revolution, the authorities leveling all sorts of threats. It was strictly forbidden! In spite of this, the Church was alive in the Diocese of Lyons, which included Dardilly. The Church was underground, but flourishing! Priests disguised themselves as artisans and secretly conducted their ministerial services throughout the parishes. One of these priests who passed himself off as a cook, visited the Vianney home, one day. After blessing all the children, he turned to John Mary. He liked the boy. “How old are you?” the priest asked. John Mary replied, he was eleven. The priest asked him how long it had been since his last confession. Before John Mary could finish replying, “I’ve never been to confession,” the priest had him in tow, and John Mary was making his first confession. Then the priest turned to the family, “Now it’s time for him to study Catechism, so he will be ready to receive First Holy Communion.”

No sooner said, Saint John Vianney was off to live with his aunt, in Ecully. There were two nuns there, disguised in lay clothes, who were preparing fifteen other children; so he could join them and prepare for his First Holy Communion. Although his companions learned to love this young boy, his life in Ecully began with painful jibing. Being short and a little plump, they would taunt him with: “Look at the little fat boy wrestling with his angel.”

He was thirteen years old when he finally received His Lord in His Body and Blood, his First Holy Communion. The shades were drawn to prevent detection by the authorities. The only light, outside of the lit candles on the Altar, was the New Light of John Mary and his Savior, now one.

As a grown man, he was still not able to speak of that day, without tears coming to his eyes. He had not wanted to leave; he had wanted this moment to last. Or was it, as he explained, years later,

“When we receive Communion, we sense something extraordinary...a great joy,...a great consolation,...a well-being that permeates our whole being and makes us tremble...We cannot but say with St. John, `It is the Lord!’ O my God! What joy for a Christian to get up from the Sacred Banquet and go forth with all Heaven in his heart.”

  Saint John Vianney - Cure of Ars

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