St. John Vianney

Their story

John Vianney was born in 1786 near Lyon, France, during the French Revolution, when priests were hunted and Mass had to be celebrated in secret. As a boy he attended these hidden Masses and came to admire the courageous priests who risked their lives to bring the sacraments to the people. John wanted to become a priest, but he struggled terribly with his studies, especially Latin. He was dismissed from the seminary for a time. A patient parish priest, Abbé Balley, tutored him and believed in him, and John was finally ordained in 1815. In 1818 he was sent to Ars, a small village where faith had grown cold. He was told there was little love of God in the parish and that he would put some there. He prayed, fasted, visited every family, and preached about God’s love and the reality of sin. Slowly the village changed. Word spread of the holy priest of Ars, and people began coming from all over France and beyond. In his later years, tens of thousands of pilgrims came each year, and he often spent twelve to sixteen hours a day hearing confessions. The Curé of Ars died in 1859, worn out by love for his people. He was canonized in 1925 and is the patron saint of parish priests.