St John Vianney

St. John Vianney
Body of the Cure of Ars
Birth	8 May 1786 Dardilly
Deaths	4 August 1859 (73 years) Ars-sur-Formans
Nationality	French
Revered	Ars-sur-Formans
Beatification	1904 Rome by Pius X
Canonization	1925 Rome by Pius XI
Revered by	the Roman Catholic Church
Day	August 4
Patron saint	Patron saint of parish priests
Servant of God Venerable Happy St.
change

Jean-Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cur of Ars said or the holy Cur of Ars, was born on 8 May 1786 in Dardilly , near Lyon , and died on 4 August 1859 at Ars-sur-Formans. He was curate of the parish of Ars (then Ars-en-Dombes today Ars-sur-Formans ) for 41 years.

He was named patron of all priests of the universe by Pope Pius XI in 1929.

Biography

Childhood and early youth

Jean-Marie . Soon, however, the family learns Vianney schismatic character of Father Rey and enter into relations with a priest refractory to the Civil Constitution, the vicar general of Lyons sent as a missionary in Ecully , a village near Ecully. It is the priest who takes refractory to Jean-Marie, aged thirteen, her first communion . Missionaries interrupt their presence until 1801 cully and it is therefore assumed that Jean-Marie, who no longer attended the church schismatic priest Dardilly, stayed several years without hearing mass . In 1802, Father Rey joined the Concordat and the pastor becomes legitimate Ecully. Schism and underground belong to the past .

The town remained without Dardilly teacher since the beginning of the Revolution and the majority of children could neither read nor write. Late 1803, the municipality appoints a new teacher, including Jean-Marie Vianney, then aged 17, attends school .

Father Charles Balley, priest "bankruptcy" of cully since 1803 and doomed, according to tradition gnovfaine, training of priests (he prepares some students at the seminary of Lyon, reopened recently), is hosting the highly uneducated Jean-Marie but strong, with all his benevolence, winter 1806 - 1807 in the small school he founded Priestly . It is a poor student, mostly because he started studying very late . He has great difficulty , and his knowledge is limited to a bit of arithmetic , a little history and some geography. The study of Latin is an ordeal for him although it is helped by his classmate Mathias Loras , future first bishop missionary Dubuque , which gives him some lessons. Abbe Balley, however, knowing his piety and mortification he inflicted, no doubt about his vocation .

Desertion

The Spanish war claims so many soldiers and Jean-Marie was joined in 1809. Ecclesiastical students were exempted from military service, but it is possible that the vicars-general have thought that, considering the great ignorance of Jean-Marie Vianney, the present as a student might have seemed fraudulent . The conscript deserted. There are two versions of this desertion, each of which has several witnesses to it . According to Jean-Marie Vianney, who had been ill and was still convalescing, had difficulties to join his regiment, and got lost, not to be punished as a deserter, accepted the proposal of a peasant to hide under a false name, as a teacher in his village. According to another version, the desertion was willful. Even witnesses who have deserted as almost involuntary show of reluctance that the Spanish Civil War inspired Vianney, who, like most Catholics, believed that war against the will of God . He settled under a false name to the village of Nos and teaches lessons to children in various families. The mayor and the priest is aware of his illegal and, moreover, nothing to fear from the villagers, who, like most of the peasant population of the region are willing to protect the refractory . When, 25 March 1810, Napoleon signed a decree pardoning draft evaders if they are available to county authorities, Vianney, a deliberate decision, which does no doubt this time, decides to stay deserter . The imperial authorities, who refuse to believe that Father Jean-Marie ignores the hiding of the deserter, inflicting heavy fines to put pressure on him and finally, the younger brother of Jean-Marie agrees to serve in his place against compensation paid by the father . It seems that the father had given to Jean-Marie complaint of his conduct in this case .

The seminarian

No longer a deserter, Jean-Marie may return to school of priestly cully . In 1812, Father Balley present it to the minor seminary Verrires. (The seminar was opened illegally, a decree of Napoleon having limited to one per department the number of small seminars .)

It is very low in philosophy , although he gives private lessons in French in this sector, whereas it normally taught in Latin . Like all his classmates can not, it is exempt from the year of physics and sent directly to his theology at the seminary of Saint Irenaeus of Lyons . It should be borne by the institution, his father refused to participate in pension costs . Deemed too low, it is returned to his parish priest . However, Father Balley persuades the vicars general and piety Vianney is large enough to compensate for his ignorance and the seminarian is ordained priest 13 August 1815 at the Major Seminary of Grenoble , then installed in Old Street Temple, in the former convent of the Minims of Grenoble.

The Cure of Ars

It is then sent to cully as curate of Mr. Balley . After the death of it, he was appointed in 1818 chaplain of Ars , a village in the Dombes about two hundred inhabitants in the department of Ain . His followers call their parish priest, although not officially as such as Ars, which is still a simple chaplaincy attached to the parish of Mizrieux , will become a parish in 1821 .

The inhabitants of Ars soon know that their "cure" leads an austere life, eating little and giving everything he has, and they are spending many hours in prayer in church, with an expression that makes them think he sees Christ. They conclude that he is a saint . They love him for his cheerfulness, his kindness, his goodness and charity . His reputation does not eat and almost no sleep, praying day and night and give everything he has quickly spread to neighboring villages .

Statue of Jean-Marie Vianney in the church of Sermentizon ( Puy de Dome , France ).

The "Providence"

Upon arrival of the Abbe Vianney of Ars School, which is only a local part leprosy, is held by a foreign teacher in the village which makes the class in winter. The teaching is poor, the religious and moral training is neglected, and much to dislike something that the Abbe Vianney, boys and girls are together . To remedy this situation, he decided to found a school for girls. For teachers, it does not nuns, who were out ladies, but daughters of the campaign he has trained himself. There are two girls, Catherine Lassagne Lardet and Avens, and sends them to Fareham in a boarding school where they acquire sisters in a few months of lean knowledge. Training of teachers is incomplete, but Father Vianney was especially concerned about the moral and religious instruction of children. With the help of benefactors, do we assume he bought a small house, and in 1824 , opened her school for girls under the name "House of Providence." He called "guidelines" Catherine Lassagne, Benote Lardet Chanay and Jeanne-Marie, who, having no training as a teacher, will be dedicated to handicrafts . The school is free, families from neighboring parishes to send their children. We accept residents soon (the school does not feed). Wealthy benefactors provide regular income to the work, thereby expanding the house and host of poor or orphaned girls, even aged twenty, who are fed, educated and maintained free .

At Providence, the parish priest of Ars takes its share of the most humble tasks. For example, he wished to participate in the emptying of cesspits, sometimes as spectator and sometimes as an actor .

Pilgrimage to Ars

By 1827 the parish of Ars (including religious state upon arrival of the Abbe Vianney is described below, the pastoral section of the Cur d'Ars) is "converted" many fishermen have returned to God and religious practice has become more regular. These results are not due solely to the action of the Cure of Ars: the missions, as Ars in the area, produced a significant upsurge in religious fervor . Ars, however, will take an exceptional place.

Very soon, indeed, the reputation of extreme austerity cure, which they say devilish victim and the miracles attributed to him to attract a number of Ars more and more people willing to confess to the saint. This movement, called the pilgrimage to Ars, is growing especially 1830 to 1835 and will continue until the priest died.

To distract himself from the veneration of pilgrims, Father Vianney creates a chapel in the church of St. Philomena and to this he attributes holy now graces granted to visitors . This places the pilgrimage under the protection of a saint who would be dropped from the calendar in 1961 is, according to Abbot Laurentin, a line of "humor of God" .

Father Raymond

The influx of foreigners soon renders impossible the Abbe Vianney fully exercise both its duties and those of priest confessor and preacher of the pilgrims . He wants to be freed from the burden Parish and suggests that adding to it Father Raymond, whom he once favored the entrance to the seminar and that he had sympathy .

The diocese of Belley is satisfactory to the parish priest of Ars. Under an agreement signed in September 1845 between the Abbe Vianney of Ars Mayor and a representative of the diocese, Father Vianney retains the title and duties of parish priest of Ars, but the spiritual administration of the parish is under the personal responsibility of Father Raymond . The inhabitants of Ars resent the priest no longer has the full management of the parish, especially since we know that Father Raymond is not very liked in the parish where he comes from . The priest "indulges" to express concern about what will happen to his parishioners of his private concern and suggests that returns to its withdrawal . It is in this ambiguous situation that Father Raymond installed as coadjutor of the parish priest of Ars September 25, 1845 .

According to most witnesses, Father Raymond is a great church, but authoritarian and lacking in tact . It was commissioned by the bishop to put some order and organization in the business of Ars, and in particular to ensure that monies collected from the pilgrims are not given indiscriminately, as the Cure of Ars tended to do, to people who did not need it . The bishop has even asked the abb Raymond monitor the use of Mass stipends . (The fees paid by the masses of pilgrims were significant. In the last six years of life of the parish priest of Ars, there were thirty-six thousand masses per year , or an average of one hundred Masses per day. He came to the priest of Ars to borrow the fees for masses and pray for benefactors to help pay .)

Father Raymond performs its duties in a manner that earned him the disapproval of relatives of the pastor. He is accused of increase in painful scenes ever vexing the priest, who is sometimes reduced to hide her good works to which he devoted the money given by pilgrims . Thus, Brother Athanasius, director of the school boys of Ars, in 1851 wrote to his superior that the priest gave him some of the fees for masses without the knowledge of Father Raymond, who, himself, gate fees for masses at the palace . However, as Father Raymond in office at Ars, Father Vianney show him affection, and we refuse to complain about him to the bishop . It even threatens the bishop to withdraw his parents if Father Raymond is replaced .

As we shall see later, Father Raymond had, besides his authoritarianism and lack of tact, another trait that could make him unpopular: he was very critical of the alleged supernatural events.

The sale of Providence and the foundation for the boys' school

Providence is open to much criticism: The school has a classroom for large, medium and small pupils, the teachers are not highly educated themselves, order and cleanliness to leave desired. Comparison with schools run by teaching congregations is cruel to Providence, which is maybe not quite to the academic authorities. All these reasons, coupled with the fact that the work does not survive surely priest of Ars, who is at arm's length, mean that the bishop wants Providence is assigned to the nuns. The Cure of Ars have long drag things ("I think Bishop sees the will of God in this, but I do not see it.") But eventually the bishop to send him the Vicar General and Superior General of the Congregation of St. Joseph, 5 November 1847, the parish priest of Ars yields to the superior general of the buildings, lands and rents of Providence, effective May 5, 1848 .

In 1849 , he founded a school for boys entrusted to the Brothers of the Holy Family of Belley they teach there for free . By using benefactors and by selling everything he owns, it is capital that eventually reached 20,000 francs and that the diocese up to 4% . The interest on the amount placed, attached to the treatment that the Brothers receive from the Government, will enable them to teach for free . The Brothers and the diocese will be some time in conflict who hold the capital. Finally, what are the Brothers who will win .

The incident of La Salette

On 24 September 1850, Maximin Giraud , who was four years ago one of the two children witnessed the apparition of the Virgin at La Salette , Ars is brought to by supporters of the " Baron de Richemont , who seek to endorse this called Louis XVII by Maximin, Maximin and the Cure of Ars. The reason they give for their visit is the desire to see the holy man's vocation confirm Maximin . The Cure of Ars had previously shown very confident in the appearance (not yet recognized) from La Salette, but after his conversation with Maximin, it changes attitudes. Bruillard Bishop, bishop of Grenoble, which is preparing to recognize the appearance, he wrote: "You can not put you in a kind of public opposition to me, without the kindness to give me knowledge of your reasons." The Cure of Ars responds with a letter containing these words: "The little telling me he had not seen the Blessed Virgin, I was tired a couple of days . "Bishop Bruillard nevertheless acknowledges the appearance in 1851, which displeased Mgr de Bonald , Archbishop of Lyons, who visited in person the priest of Ars, and holds him Maximin said, "did not see anything." In 1854, Bishop Ginoulhiac, successor to Bishop Bruillard to the bishopric of Grenoble, published a pastoral letter in which he gives the incident of Ars explanation supports the authenticity of the apparition of La Salette. A priest reads the command portion of the parish priest of Ars, which interrupts the reading and said: "It's not that. " Nevertheless, its position as a denier appearance recognized anxiety . In 1858, suffering from internal pain for several days, he asked the Virgin in the issue as evidence of the truth of the apparition of La Salette. The sentence disappears inside, and in his thanksgiving, he asked a second proof: the pull of a financial bind. He finds the money (one witness explained: "in her drawer") and concludes that the emergence of La Salette is genuine .

Legion of Honor and canonry

In 1852, the bishop of Belley, Ars comes to the priest to give the hackles of honorary canon. The priest, who feels unworthy of that distinction does not intend to raise the hackles and sells for fifty francs. Having learned that the sale has struggled the bishop, he sent 6,600 francs and told him that if he sold the cape, because he needed fifty francs to complete a foundation . (On the large sums that passed through the hands of parish priest of Ars, see below under "The Miser for God": the priest of Ars, and money.)

In 1855, upon proposal of the sub-prefect of Trevoux, Marquis de Castellane, the prefect of Ain, Count Cotlogon and Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, Fortoul , the Emperor appoints the Abbe Vianney Chevalier the Legion of Honour. As no pension is associated with this decoration, the priest replied the mayor of Ars who broke the news: "Tell the emperor that he keeps up his cross, since the poor have nothing to gain" and it does not pay the fee of twelve francs needed to receive the cross. His vicar pays for him without telling him and the priest was surprised to still receive the cross .

The Cure of Ars to die at Ars

Throughout his life as a priest, the parish priest of Ars is haunted by the fear of being unworthy of his department, particularly because of his ignorance. There is also convinced that the sin of ignorance will send to hell more people than all other sins together. Fearing that because the parishioners did damn and be damned to do with them , it aspires to nothing more than priest and retreat into solitude to pray for the sinners . He knows that the priests felt that he did not have enough science to minister properly . His desire to leave Ars, which is already clear from 1827 or 1828 , quickens when, in 1831, some residents accused him of being the father of the child of an unwed mother who gave birth in a house adjacent to the cure. (This single mother, Catherine Chaffangeon, was the daughter of Louis Chaffangeon, a parishioner that the priest of Ars had a high regard and he has made famous words describing his prayer in the church: "I look at him and he tells me. "The mother-daughter does not seem to have confirmed the charge against the priest .)

Twice at least, Father Vianney tried to flee Ars . In an attempt in 1843, we find that the brief absence of the priest causes a depletion of the influx of pilgrims who put Providence in financial difficulties . The last escape attempt took place in 1853. The Cure of Ars was sixty-seven years and is plagued by the disease. The Bishop proceeded to replace his assistant, Father Raymond, named in another parish. The departure of Father Raymond decides the Cure of Ars to flee from his brother-in Lyon, in the hope of snatching and the bishop of Belley his retirement . However, the new vicar, the Brothers, the parishioners and pilgrims of frustrating the attempt and decided to stay . A few weeks after the failed escape, the bishop of Belley, Bishop Chalandon, just notify the parish priest at Ars that permission to withdraw is denied .

In 1857, Bishop Langalerie Chalandon succeeds Bishop to the diocese of Belley . The Cure of Ars writing the new bishop: "My lord, I become ever more infirm, I must spend part of the night on a chair or get up three or four times in an hour. I'm dizzy in my confessional, where I lose two or three minutes. Doctors see no other remedy than the rest. I think Your Lordship will find that I go spend some good time with my parents. Given my age and my infirmities, I want to say goodbye forever to Ars. "

Bishop Langalerie, nor his predecessor, does the priest of Ars to retire. Bishop Fourrey made this comment on it, "we will tax hardness Bishop Langalerie! For another, he would not hesitate: we do not compel a department as crushing a priest worn by age, plagued by illness, tortured by the infirmities. But the case of M. Vianney was too fantastic for us up his mind, out of compassion, to give him the freedom from God himself wanted his confessional nailed to wood as a cross. So good he was, the bishop was not to tenderize. It was, even in death the soul, the priest agree to continue to the end to Ars. "

Often tempted to despair but still intoxicated with divine love , Father Vianney at Ars remains where he died on 4 August 1859 . The day before his death, his assistant, the missionary Toccanier, made him make a will under which all his property was bequeathed to the top of the missionaries .

The Pastoral Cure of Ars

When the Abbe Vianney arrived there in 1818, Ars has the current level of piety in the Dombes at that time: we go to Mass on Sunday but we rarely receive communion and some men do not even make their Easter, and sometimes we allow ourselves to work on Sunday and defended. However, there are fervent families . In moral standpoint, two things attract the disapproval of the Abbe Vianney: dances and cabarets . The new chaplain will seek to "convert his parish" . It will specifically seek to develop the piety of his parishioners to the Eucharist and to Mary .

Communion frequently and brotherhoods

He leads a small group of pious women to receive communion every Sunday, which was not customary, even among pious people . It is gaining influence on some young girls, whom he invited to eat fruits in the garden of the rectory and with whom he founded the Confraternity of the Rosary . It also attaches great importance to the brotherhood, because it believes that a member of a brotherhood sinner can be redeemed by the prayers of others . Establish or restore it so many guilds . Among them is the Brotherhood of the Holy Slavery. When, around 1852, he learned that the Brotherhood was suppressed and condemned by Pope Benedict XIV in 1758, he felt a great pain but will abide by the decision of the Church .

sumptuousness of places and objects of worship

In the early days of his ministry to Ars, the small number of parishioners and the infrequency of confessions him much leisure time. He dedicated to beautifying the church, because he believes that "we must offer our Lord Jesus Christ all that is most beautiful and precious." He bought, using his own money and donations of pious people, a new altar rich gilding . Taking the brush itself, he decorated the pews "with the taste of different ornaments that appeals to people of the country" . The expense of the Viscount of Garets, brother of the mistress of Ars , he bought for the church ornaments sumptuous, often repeating the merchants' Not good enough, it takes more beautiful than that. " About the word "beautiful", Mgr Trochu remarked: "In fact, all ornaments purchased or received at that time by Mr. Vianney were priceless artifacts, however, had no real artistic value and only the canopy, very rich, was embroidered with a real good taste. " / Sup> These offered by Viscount contribute to the parish, for they provoke curiosity, attraction Ars begins to exert on the surrounding population , but "M. Vianney himself, did not bother to worry of art. " It expands a chapel which was already built and others, which does not leave much subsist old walls .

The Preacher

To compose his sermons, the priest of Ars uses sermons, it does not copy literally but "transposed a pen clumsily, connecting them as he could, the intersecting local allusions, personal remarks, developments imaged , exclamations or pious indignation " . Frightened himself with the fate of the damned, it tends, in the early years of his ministry, the preachers to choose the most frightening passages and even to exacerbate them . He taught by example that the greatest number of married people be damned, or that if children are damning themselves by being with their parents, parents will be too damned . Its austerity is in the form of tutiorisme when he professes that "there must always choose the most perfect," without doubt, as Bishop notes Fourrey that this formula had been condemned by the Unigenitus .

However, the affection that most people of Ars he was held, the testimony they provide to his affability, his cheerfulness and his goodness, his success as a confessor, the promptness with which he admitted a small group of devotees communion weekly, all suggest that the rigor of the Cure of Ars, where it should also be part of the time and place, did not correspond to its true nature . It will ease later this rigor , under the influence, it seems, a clergyman, Father Tailhades, who spent several months in 1839-1840 and Ars, do we suppose, attracted his attention to guidelines piscoplales condemning the excessive severity in priests .

The Cure of Ars, who had the gift of tears , wept when, in his sermons, he spoke of sin. According to Bishop Fourrey was the catechist catechism than himself who was admired. Sometimes even well-intentioned listeners are disappointed not to find in his preaching that "an extreme religious emotion in the service of the most elementary truths" . In 1846, Young Brothers, returning from a pilgrimage to Ars entrust such a disappointment to their superior, Father Colin, who, after acknowledging that he too found the sermons of the priest of Ars empty doctrine, adds: "But then: this is a Saint. "

In this same year 1846, Guyot booksellers are getting ready to print and publish the sermons of the priest of Ars, in agreement with it. The Bishop of Belley examines the work and found the unfortunate publication . He consulted a theologian who replied: "I am quite of the opinion of Your Highness about errors, obscurities, and long lengths, not including errors in French. The bishop therefore maintained his decision and sign the Cure d'Ars a waiver of the publication In his biography of the Cure d'Ars, Fourrey Bishop commented: "The bottom doctrinal thought had borrowed from sermons allowed, it was enough that his pen in the transpost awkward sentences, so that everything was spoiled. " He is surprised that these "pious platitudes", obviously borrowed from devotional books of the time, were able to worry at this point the bishop of the parish priest of Ars .

The fight against dances

At the time Jean-Marie Vianney was appointed chaplain of Ars, there used to dance on the spot. The anti-clerical pamphleteer Paul-Louis Courier quipped that the offensives during the Restoration of Catholic priests, especially among the newly minted seminary, led against the village dances with the support of the secular arm. In their zeal, he contrasted the conduct of an old priest "seeing very happy dancing girls and boys, mainly on the place, for it is approved more than some other place whatsoever, and said that evil is rarely in public. So he was perfectly well that the appointment of young girls and their alleged was on the spot rather than elsewhere, rather than grove or field somewhere out of sight, as will happen when all our celebrations completely removed. He had custody of this deletion request, or to dance among the deadly sins, or to use the power to disturb the innocent pleasures. For after all, these young people, he said, must see, to know before you marry, and where could they ever meet more appropriately there, in front of their friends, their parents and the public , sovereign court makes convenience and honesty? " The Cure of Ars is one of those priests who make war dances. "See, my brothers," he exclaimed, look! persons entering into a ball leave their guardian angel at the door. And it is a daemon that replaces, so that he is soon in the room as many demons as dancers. " . After several years of preaching and prayer , he obtained the result that only a few young men and little girls family Christian dare to dance at Ars, and only away from the church. However, some young girls and many young men of Ars will dance in the neighboring villages .

The fight against the cabarets

When the Abbe Vianney at Ars arrived in 1818, the village has four cabarets. The Cure of Ars is running a campaign against these institutions, which compete with the church on Sunday . He will get (including paying for a tavern that farm) there are no more cabarets around the church. His sermons had for some time the effect of reducing the tavern business, but the influx of pilgrims to visit their clients Ars .

Fioretti

Jean-Marie Vianney was full of good sense, knew how to humor.

It has retained some of his famous phrases:

• When his bed caught fire one night: "The devil could not burn the bird, he has burned the cage."
• One day a heavy person said: "When you go to heaven, I will try to hang your robe," and the Cure of Ars, who was only skin and bone strength and always give everything to refuse the food a little restorative that his parishioners were trying to provide him, replying: "Beware of it! The entrance to Heaven is narrow, and we both would stay at the door. "

He was visited by Lacordaire : "The most famous visit one received by the parish priest of Ars is without doubt the father Lacordaire. Coming to Lyon in simple pilgrim, the illustrious Dominican arrives incognito in a small car. However, under the folds of his black coat, someone sees a white dress, and soon the pilgrims of Ars learn who is the visitor. Deep tub. The next day we see the Father Lacordaire listen in a humble parish priest's sermon meditation Mortification

The Cure of Ars, especially in his youth, practiced severe mortifications, he let his family know the purpose of building .

Starvation

The people of Ars repeated soon as their pastor did not eat almost anything . A clergyman once said: "A time comes, I think, where the Cure of Ars will live longer than the Eucharist. "

Fox's widow, who held the household the priest of Ars in the first years after its installation, said this at his daughter's memories that it has reported as follows: "Usually, he drank no wine at the time she served. He was cooking potatoes, put them in a basket and ate all cold, while the supply lasted. He bought the bread of the poor into his food. My mother believed that there were sometimes several days without eating. When he was tired, he came to my mother, she made some matefaims and bore him in her room. When he needed it, it sometimes took a little milk in the morning. "

In 1830, he has a reputation for eating only bread and cheese .

What was the diet of the Cure of Ars in his later years, the evidence is "substantially discordant" . As often is the Father Raymond who proved to be less inclined to say extraordinary things: "At the time I ministered to him, he had two regular meals in the morning, he took a cup milk chocolate with a few pieces of bread at noon, he finished his chocolate into which we put a little coffee. He added a little meat or vegetables. At the time of pilgrimage, it was impossible to mortify himself as he did early in his ministry, he could not observe the fasts with the usual rigor in France. (...) He was even forced to take some slight relaxations between meals, such as a little old wine, some pellets, some light pastries and some fruit, and these relaxations were necessary to sustain its fragile existence. "

Sleep Deprivation

The Cure of Ars also has a reputation for almost no sleep . "We almost always saw his lighted window," said one witness. But Monsignor Trochu, reporting this statement, added that the priest left the light on when he slept .

Towards the end of his life, he took a slight break in the afternoon and it intersects the sessions of confession moments of drowsiness .

Cilicia and Discipline

We also knew that the priest wore a hair shirt and blows s'ensanglantait discipline . "He must have fainted more than once and had bled against the wall in a corner of his room, hidden by the curtain that falls from the sky-to-bed, drops of blood still visible splashed plastering yellow. Three major spots are pretty much the impression of a shoulder, and these blotches were cast nets to paving. Other spots are fingerprints or palm; the holy left them on the wall supporting it to get up. "

Facts supernatural and preternatural

Several witnesses testified that the life of the Cur d'Ars was accompanied by facts supernatural (miracles) and preternatural (diabolical infestation).

diabolical infestations

Towards the end of 1823 , the Cure of Ars begins to hear abnormal sounds in the rectory. Thinking it is thieves, he asked a young man, Andre Verchere, to stand guard overnight. Towards one o'clock in the morning, one, being in the room placed at his disposal means violent shaking the handle and latch the door of the court and give as clubbed on the same door. He looks out the window but saw no one outside near the door. Then the sound continues in another part of the presbytery and the whole house shakes. The Cure of Ars Verchre just find her room and asked, "Did you hear the noise? "(The question is in the past, suggesting that the noise has stopped when the priest has Verchre under the eyes.) Verchere says he heard the noise but saw nothing outside. The Cure of Ars said Verchere Verchere going back to bed and hear nothing of the night . The Cure of Ars asked him to come back the next night, but too scared, he refuses. For three weeks, other men stand guard. The Cure of Ars said always hear abnormal sounds, but those who keep him company never hear anything . The Cure of Ars is convinced that the noises are of satanic origin . Until the end of his life , he said being tormented by the devil, whom he nicknamed "the hook .

Father Raymond, a skeptic in this as in many things, thought that the most devilish of Ars were "natural effects of a brain tired." He admitted however that some products made at the rectory of St. Trivier could not be explained this way . The facts of St. Trivier are: winter 1826-1827, a mission was preached in St. Trivier sur Moignans and several priests, including the priest of Ars, staying at the rectory; overnight, heard a loud noise and trembling cure; we ran to the room of the parish priest of Ars and is found in his bed, which was brought to the middle of the room and the Cure of Ars said that the Devil moved the bed .

It even happened that the noises were heard in the parsonage evil in the absence of the Cure of Ars, if one believes the Father Denis Barge, who, as an adult, says that with other children, in whom the curiosity outweighed the fear, he often went to listen near the rectory at night and heard a voice seemed out of the cure shouting "Vianney! Vianney! "What would have happened over twenty times, both in the absence and presence of the priest. Bishop Fourrey made this comment, however: "Of course, children's imagination could go well. "

The same barge Denis, unlike other witnesses to these kinds of facts, said to have collected the diabolical phenomena even though he had the cure of Ars in the eyes. Indeed, during a confession in which the parish priest of Ars confirmed that he had a religious vocation, the devil shook the room .

We saw that Father Raymond considered the most diabolical phenomena that tormented the Cure d'Ars as the natural effects of a brain tired. This explanation is rejected by Dr. Saunders, who was the physician of the Cure of Ars, because of perfect psychological balance of the priest and the safety of his trial . However, another doctor who examined the Cure of Ars mentions in his order "nervous affections which it is subject" . Similarly, the chatelaine of Ars, a great admirer of the priest, speaks of "the fever that waved on his poor pallet" .

The nocturnal attacks that the priest of Ars suffered from the devil allowed him to gratify the curiosity of Lassagne Catherine, who "loved the news". He was telling example that at night, her discipline had begun to walk like a snake, or that the devil had tried to kill him in the fireplace and sang like a nightingale. Catherine Lassagne noted these confidences faithfully , but Bishop Fourrey wondered if, when the parish priest of Ars was such stories, "the focus of fun pastor did not give some of his words a meaning which humor was its place " .

Miracles

The Miracle Wheat

The most famous miracles was promoted Cure of Ars is without doubt the miracle wheat, which occurred twice. The first dates from the years 1828-1830. We then put in the attic of the rectory wheat that was used to make bread for Providence. According to a statement made to the trial of the Ordinary: "The growing of wheat has been known throughout the parish and I heard him tell the father Mandy, as follows: 'The miller had taken one hundred bushels of wheat to flour. It took about one hundred bushels per month for Providence. 'Mandy's father, who had the key to the attic and that measured when the wheat miller arose, came to tell the priest that he was only a small heap of grain. The priest said nothing. A few days later, when Mr. Mandy was visiting the attic, he found it full. "

At trial apostolic in genere, a clergyman said: "I know the surviving son of an inhabitant of Ars named Mandy attributed to his father for having secretly assembled the wheat into the barn. This man seemed a little disposed to weaken the supernatural intervention in the facts of the life of the Cur d'Ars. Msgr Fourrey, quoting this statement, said that the hypothesis of deception Mayor Mandy is unsustainable, the best proof being, he said, the priest of Ars always believed in the authenticity of the miracle wheat. Bishop Fourrey recognizes that the miracles that have occurred to the cure has never been tested rigorously. It reproduced on this testimony at the trial of the Ordinary: "There has never been much occupied in the parish to see these facts, because 1 it was difficult to penetrate to Providence and the cure, 2 because the opinion of sanctity that had Mr. Vianney was such that it does not seem extraordinary that God had made wonders in his favor. It was like all natural things. "

As for the second miracle of the wheat, it is not known as an indirect witness. One that is supposed to have found the passed over in silence when she was interviewed during the canonization .

Providence was also the scene of a miracle of trouble: three guidelines demonstrate that a large batch of bread could be obtained from a quantity of flour wholly inadequate .

Catherine said Lassagne also a miracle of multiplication of wine. According to Father Raymond, always very critical of the alleged supernatural events, the parish priest of Ars himself does not believe in this miracle and gave a natural explanation .

The miracle of insight (or intuition)

Many pilgrims have testified that the priest of Ars had their account of knowledge that could not have been communicated to him naturally. This vision is a supernatural gift that mystical theology called intuition . A penitent could be so convinced of this gift of clairvoyance that he relied on the intuition of the parish priest of Ars, rather than his own memories: "and now suddenly he began to question me about such and such point, always on faults ignored or forgotten about me, so that by the end, even when the memory does not return me once, I dared not deny, ensured it was not wrong. "However, relatives of the Cure of Ars who spoke on this subject have all said that, in turn, they had never seen this gift of intuition told by pilgrims. Father Raymond, still critical, said during a trial of apostolic "I asked him one day if it was true he guessed that some people had done and he answered no and added that it was sometimes informed by landladies as regards the external facts. "

Monsignor Trochu and Bishop Fourrey also recognize that the gift of intuition of the Cure of Ars was not evident consistently. They give evidence for the occurrence of La Salette (see above), where the parish priest of Ars perceived as lying on witness an apparition that would be recognized by the Church. In this incident, Father Eymard, future St. Peter Julian Eymard wrote to the vicar general of Grenoble, a strong supporter of the apparition: "Moreover, we give away too much power to the opinion of the vicar of Ars, here it is usually in the report of the trial, and often it is placed below "

Miraculous Cures

The prayers of the parish priest of Ars have received several miraculous healings.

In May 1843 he is suffering from pneumonia and his condition is deemed critical by the physicians. He implores his recovery, promising hundred masses to St. Philomena, and ends when the first of these masses, the temperature drops. The Cure of Ars attributes the healing to St. Philomena, and the general opinion is doing the same . In 1959, however, Dr. Alain Assailly wrote: "It is very difficult, our doctor did not find that the defervescence became the ninth day, as is commonly seen in pneumonia prior antibiotic use. "

Among the conditions which the prayers of the priest of Ars have obtained the miraculous healing of diseases that are mentioned seem to have been primarily functional diseases or functional consequences of organic disease (loss of voice , paralysis , pain ...). It also cites an organic healing: magnifying glass on the face which disappeared just as the priest of Ars touched, but the evidence is conflicting and late, and the identity of the miracle is unknown .

Celestial Apparitions

The Cure of Ars spoke freely of the torments inflicted on her by the devil, but he was more discreet about the consolations he received from Heaven. For example, he makes vague references from the pulpit that intrigue his parishioners: "Brethren, if you knew what happened in the chapel of St. John, you would not dare enter . Speaking of his early years at Ars, it will assign another priest, Father Tailhades: "The good Lord gave me extraordinary graces. In the holy altar, I had the consolation of the most singular. I saw the good Lord, I will not say that this was a sensible manner, but the good Lord gave me many graces. " In another confidant, he does not say he sees himself God, but he knows someone who sees and converses with him, and concludes that this party confidante of God is the Cure of Ars itself .

"The mean for God": the priest of Ars and money

In the early days of his priesthood when he was curate at Ecully, Father Vianney had the opportunity to receive a bequest of 30,000 francs in his name, but he refused. Became priest of Ars, it was on this comment: "If it were now I would not refuse. "

And indeed, the parish priest of Ars received immense resources. When asked, says Father Raymond, how he managed to have so much money, he replied: "My secret is simple, it is never to keep and never nothing. He admitted also that he was "greedy for God."

Serving this "greed", he put the skills that the abbot Raymond gave the following example. A wealthy widow asks him if he one day received a letter in which she invited him to remove her 50 francs for his good works. He replied: "Yes, Madam, I received it, but then a charitable man poured into my hands a sum of 6000 francs to help my work recently undertaken, and this large sum has made me forget yours. "This work consisted of foundations to finance missions in various parishes decadal. The rich widow asks how much is needed to establish a mission and the parish priest of Ars said that he is 3000 francs. The rich widow announces it will give 5,000 francs. "Ma'am, I know your generosity, you will kindly complete the sum of 6000 francs to found two missions. " (The total foundation mission of the priest of Ars reach 201,625 francs, a sum that Bishop Fourrey describes as huge at the time .)

If he knows get donors to make offerings more in line with its needs, the parish priest of Ars, however, does not, in the words of the director of the Brothers 'school,' to be taxed, especially fixed time and for such amount. " His former assistant was Father Raymond come to ask for a good cause 2000 francs to be paid within such time, the Cure d'Ars did not give him satisfaction, and telling the thing says "I do not give him anything anymore. "

Recognition of the Church

In 1905 , he was beatified by Pius X and declared "patron of the priests of France"

In 1925 , he was canonized by Pius XI.

In 1929 , he was declared patron of all priests of the universe "by Pius XI (also known as patron saint or the Director of all priests of the Catholic Church in charge of a parish).

In 1945 , Ars visit ^of Monsignor Angelo Roncalli , papal nuncio in France, the future John XXIII.

In 1959 , the centenary of the death of Jean-Marie Vianney, Pope John XXIII published the Encyclical Sacerdotii nostri primordia .

In 1986 , Ars visit of Pope John Paul II.

In 2009 , proclaiming the Year of the priesthood , the year of Jubilee for ^the 150th anniversary of the death of the "Holy Father".

In 2010 , the Holy See to proclaim boss waives all priests of the universe . This recognition seems to have been waiting more priests or Catholics or the Roman Curia, that will announced in his speech by Pope Benedict XVI.

The pilgrimage after the death of Ars Cure of Ars

• The Basilica of Ars

The Basilica of Ars was built in the late ^nineteenth century from the old church. The work was funded by a lottery including the two big prizes were the kneelers and watch the priest of Ars, which brought 100,000 francs . The Basilica houses the relics of the Cure. His body was placed in a double coffin , was exhumed in 1904. According to the minutes of the exhumation, " "The body is exposed in a shrine in the eyes of all who come to pray.

• John Paul II

The Pope John Paul II during his papal visit in 1986 in France visited Ars-sur-Formans tribute to his former pastor. John Paul II speaks of the Cure of Ars is a book published in late 2004 that brings together the overall intervention John Paul II about the Cur of Ars.

• Pilgrimages today

The town of Ars-sur-Formans is now a shrine to house 450,000 people per year. The sanctuary is home insured by the Congregation of Benedictines of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre.

Photographs

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  Shrine of the Holy Cur of Ars

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  Chapel of the Holy Heart Cure

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  Tympanum of the Chapel of the Heart of the Cur of Ars

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  Shrine of the Heart of the Cur of Ars

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  Basilica of Ars on Formans

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  Dome of the Basilica of Ars

External Links

• Sanctuary of Ars ...
• Historial of the Cur of Ars ...
• All Sermons and intuitions of the Cur of Ars on this site works the cure of Ars
• Book on teaching of the saint written by his bishop: The Holy Cure of Ars and the Family
• Priestly Formation of Jean-Marie Vianney by Fr Paul Vial
• Museum of the Diocese of Lyon (of 177 martyrs of the synod of 1993)
• (En) The work of William of Alanon on the holy Cur of Ars editions Artega

Bibliography

• Robert Serrou , Ars Parish in the world, Mame
• Abb Alfred Monnin, , Paris, 1861. Rdition, Tqui , 1922
• Mgr Francis Trochu, , Paris, Emmanuel Vitte, 1925, 691 p., ill. hors texte, portrait du cur d'Ars en frontispice. ( Monseigneur Trochu (1925) crivit une poque o le littraire avait ses lettres de noblesse, et regardait de haut l'humble patience du labeur historique. Il ignorait les sources o le cur d'Ars a copi ses sermons crits. Il avait trop facilement accueilli des faits non documents, parfois lgendaires. Et s'il a dispos du procs de canonisation, bien d'autres sources lui ont manqu. R. Laurentin, prface Mgr Ren Fourrey, , dition de 1981, p. 5.)
• Maxence Van der Meersch , , Paris, Albin Michel, 1942.
• Jean de La Varende , , Paris : Bloud et Gay, 1958, 239 p., 68 ill. N&B.
• Mgr Daniel Pezeril , , ditions du Seuil , 1959
• Michel de Saint-Pierre , , Maison de la bonne presse , 1959 , rd. Livre de Poche
• Jacqueline Genet, , Paris, ditions de l'Orante, 1961.
• Mgr Ren Fourrey, , 1964. (Rd. L'chelle de Jacob, 2009, prsentation du PJ-Ph. Nault.)
• Mgr Ren Fourrey, , 1981, Descle De Brouwer et Xavier Mappus. Prface de Ren Laurentin. (Abrg de l'ouvrage de 1964. Voir p. 9, note 1.)
• Mgr Ren Fourrey, , 2 ^e dition, 1998, Descle De Brouwer. Prface du P. Guy-Marie Bagnard.
• Marie-Paul Sve (scnario) et Los Ptillot (dessins), (nouvelle adaptation de Guy Lehideux). Paris : ditions du Triomphe, 2004. 56 p., 30 cm. ( a href = "Sp% C3% A9cial: Ouvrages_de_r% C3% A9f% C3% A9rence/2843782260" class = "mw-internal-magiclink isbn"> ISBN 2-84378 - 226-0). - Previously published in the journal "Bayard, 1958 - 1959.
• Philippe Boutry, "A holy shrine and its nineteenth century. Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney, Cur d'Ars ", in Annals. Economies, Societies and Civilizations, vol. 35, 1980, pp. 353-379, available on the site Perseus.
• Franoise Bouchard, the Cur of Ars ( 1799 - in 1864 ): viscerally priest (foreword Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard, afterword by Father Jean-Philippe Nault). Paris : Editions Salvator, 2005. 318 p., 21 cm. ( ISBN 2-7067-0393-8 ).
• Jean Fabrgues , the apostle of despair century, Jean-Marie Vianney Cure of Ars, Amiot Dumont, 1956, repr. Catholic France, 2010
• William of Alanon , the Mass of the Holy Cur of Ars, Artega, 2010

References

• Catholicism portal

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