Jean Vianney
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| St. John Baptist Mary Vianney | |
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| Curé d'Ars | |
| Born | May 8, 1786, Dardilly, France |
| Died | August 4, 1859, Ars-sur-Formans, France |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | April 8,1905 by Pope St. Pius X |
| Canonized | 1926 by Pope Pius XI |
| Major shrine | Shrine of St. John Vianney; Ars-sur-Formans, France |
| Feast | August 4 |
| Patronage | parish priests; Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney; Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa; confessors; archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas |
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St. Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney (English: St. John Baptist Mary Vianney) (May 8, 1786 - August 4, 1859) was a French parish priest who became a Catholic saint and the patron saint of parish priests. He is often referred to, even in English, as the "Curé d'Ars" (the parish priest of the village of Ars). He became famous internationally for his priestly and pastoral work in his parish due to the radical spiritual transformation of the community and its surroundings. This is attributed, according to Catholic leaders, to his saintly life, mortification, and persevering ministry in the sacrament of confession.
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[edit] Birth and early life
He was born in Dardilly in France, near Lyon, and worked on a farm, as a shepherd, until the age of 18, when he began training for the priesthood. The region of Dardilly was in great religious upheaval during Jean-Marie's youth, and his family had to make a secret of its adherence to Roman Catholicism. He was baptised under the name of Jean-Marie and chose John the Baptist as his confirmational name, and thereafter referred to himself as Jean-Marie-Baptiste.
A period of enforced military service in Napoleon's army, and then a need to hide after he had inadvertently been AWOL, were only two of the impediments to his starting his vocation. He was a poor student and a slow scholar, unfamiliar with philosophy and extremely hesitant in Latin, and he was dismissed from the seminary at Lyon, readmitted, and failed examinations again. Finally, the vicar-general examined Jean-Marie-Baptiste in French and ordained him at the age of 29 in Grenoble in 1815, after eleven years of study.
Vianney was first the curate of his childhood mentor, Father Balley. When Balley died in 1817, Vianney was named the parish priest of Ars-sur-Formans in 1818.
[edit] Priestly work and spirituality
He worked for forty-one years in his parish. In that time, he transformed it from a community known for laxity to a fervent Christian community. During his time there, he founded an orphanage for girls, and became internationally famous for his pastoral care and ability to understand his flocks' hearts.
Although modern secularists criticize his penances, he was remarkable to his parishioners for his stringency and emphasis on contrition. He believed that the priest was responsible for expiating the sins he had heard in confession, and so he practiced extreme mortifications, and he revived the penitential practices of the desert monks. Ars became famous for its piety, and in a single year it hosted over one hundred thousand pilgrims. The very obscure town of Ars, France became so visited that a line of train track was laid from Lyon. Now again the town has returned to being less frequented (except by those on pilgrimage) in that Ars cannot be reached by train or bus. In 1874, Pius IX declared him Venerable, and he was finally canonised by Pius XI in 1925.
Hagiographers state that St. Jean-Marie Vianney was vigorously tormented by the Devil. This was primarily due to his hearing of confessions for hours on end, sometimes up to 16 to 18 hours a day, according to his Catholic biographers. He worked vigorously at confession and penance for thirty years in his vocation. What he believed to be experiences of torment with demons were minor at first, but grew more severe with time. His last days were marked by peace, however, and he died in serenity.
[edit] Sacerdotii Nostri Primordia
In 1959, Pope John issued Sacerdotii Nostri Primordia, an encyclical on St. John Vianney. In the encyclical, John XXIII praised Vianney for several things, including:
- his "voluntary affliction of his body" which "led him to abstain almost completely from food and from sleep, to carry out the harshest kinds of penances, and to deny himself with great strength of soul." Vianney engaged in these mortifications as penance on behalf of the sinners he ministered to: "I impose only a small penance on those who confess their sins properly; the rest I perform in their place."
- his life of poverty, "a life that was almost completely detached from the changeable, perishable goods of this world." The encyclical points out that Vianney said "My secret is easy ... give everything away and keep nothing for yourself" and that "There are many people keeping their money hidden away while many others are dying of hunger."
- his life of chastity. The encyclical points out that Vianney said "A soul adorned with the virtue of chastity cannot help loving others; for it has discovered the source and font of love—God."
- his life of obedience, living in such a way that he "burned himself up like a piece of straw being consumed on fiery coals."
- his administration of the sacrament of Penance, which Vianney took so seriously that he said: "So many crimes against God are committed that they sometimes incline us to ask God to end this world! ... You have to come to the town of Ars if you really want to learn what an infinite multitude of serious sins there are... Alas, we do not know what to do, we think that there is nothing else to do than weep and pray to God." The encyclical also notes that Vianney said: "If there were not very innocent souls to please God and make up for our offenses, how many terrible punishments we would have to suffer!" Yet, the encyclical also points out that Vianney said: "God is quicker to forgive than a mother to snatch her child from the fire."
The encyclical also praised Vianney's prayer life, holiness, pastoral skills, exercise of the teaching office, etc.
[edit] Other data
His body is considered incorrupt by the Catholic Church.
He himself was greatly devoted to St. Philomena, to whom he attributed many miraculous occurrences.
His feast day in the Roman Catholic Church is August 4. He is the patron saint of the Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney from Campos diocese, Brazil.
[edit] References
In addition to the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, there are the following:
- Butler, Alban. Lives of the Saints. Updated. Rockford, Illinois: Tan Publishing Company, 1995. Nihil obstat and imprimatur 1955.
- Englebert, Omer. The Lives of the Saints. Christopher and Anne Fremantle, trans. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1995. Nihil obstat and imprimatur 1951.
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
