St. Peter Julian Eymard

Their story

Peter Julian Eymard was born in 1811 in La Mure, a small town in the French Alps. His father wanted him to join the family business, and for years opposed his desire to become a priest. Peter persisted, and he was ordained for his diocese in 1834. A few years later he joined the Marists, the Society of Mary, where he served as a teacher and leader. Throughout his life Peter had a deep love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. During a Corpus Christi procession in 1845, he felt an overwhelming sense of Christ's presence and a call to make the Eucharist known and loved. In 1856 he founded the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, a community of priests and brothers devoted to adoration of the Eucharist and to spreading Eucharistic devotion. Two years later he founded a community of sisters with the same mission, and he also formed groups of lay people dedicated to adoration. Peter worked especially to prepare poor adults in Paris, many of them workers who had drifted from the Church, to receive their First Communion. He was a friend of St. John Vianney, who praised his holiness. Peter died on August 1, 1868. Pope St. John XXIII canonized him in 1962, during the Second Vatican Council, and he is often called the Apostle of the Eucharist.