SAINT JOSEPH YOUTH GROUP

Early life

Jean-Marie Vianney was born on May 8, 1786, in the French town of Dardilly and was baptized the same day. His parents, Matthieu Vianney and Marie Beluze, had six children of which Jean-Marie was the third. He grew up on his family's farm in the rural town of Dardilly. The Vianneys were traditional Catholics who helped the poor and gave hospitality to Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, the patron saint of tramps, who passed through Dardilly on his pilgrimage to Rome.

By 1790, the French Revolution forced many loyal priests to hide from the government in order to carry out the sacraments in their parish. The Vianneys continued attending Mass, even though it was illegal. In order to attend Mass, the Vianneys travelled to distant farms where they would pray in secret. Since the priests would risk their lives day by day, Jean-Marie began to look upon priests as heroes. His First Communion lessons were secretly carried out in a private home by two nuns. In 1799, in his own home, he made his First Communion. During the Mass, the windows were covered so that the light of the candles could not be seen from the outside. The secrecy of his Catholic practices continued, especially during his preparation for confirmation.

Jean-Marie learned how to read and write from his older sister, due to the Revolution's effect on France's education system. His childhood was usually spent working on his father's farm. In 1802, the Catholic Church was re-established in France, resulting in religious peace throughout the country. By this time, Vianney was concerned about his future vocation and longed for an education. He was nineteen when his father allowed him to leave the farm to be tutored by Father Balley, the pastor of the Ecully parish. Father Balley taught in Latin, in a school that educated students to prepare for the clergy. Most of Vianney's classmates were boys between eleven and twelve. The school taught arithmetic, history, geography and Latin. Vianney struggled, especially with Latin, since his past education was interrupted by the French Revolution. If it wasn't for Vianney's deepest desire to be a priest - and Father Balley's patience - he would have given up his struggle to continue (Marshall 273).

During the war, Vianney's studies were interrupted during 1809 when he was drafted into Napoleon's armies to fight Spain. His drafting was a mistake, since privately tutored theological students in the Archdiocese of Lyon were exempt from conscription. Although Vianney knew this, he obeyed the orders. Vianney went to church to pray during the morning before departure. He realized too late that his unit had left without him and he was arrested as a deserter. He was later released because the recruiting captain believed his story. Shortly after he was sent to the barracks at Lyon he became ill and was hospitalized at Roanne where nuns nursed him back to health. Once released from the hospital he was sent back to the barracks together with others but fell behind the group. Later in the night he met a young man who volunteered to guide him back to his group but, instead, led him deep into the mountains of Le Forez, to the village Les Noes, where deserters had gathered (Otten, 1913)^[1]. Vianney lived there for fourteen months hidden in the byre attached to a farmhouse under the care of Claudine Fayot, a widow with four children. He assumed the name Jerome Vincent, and under that name he opened a school for village children (Dom Ernest Graf). Since the harsh weather isolated the town during the winter, the deserters were safe from gendarmes. However, after the snow melted, gendarmes came to the town constantly, searching for deserters. During these searches, Vianney hid inside stacks of fermenting hay in Fayot's barn. An Imperial decree, passed in 1810, granted all deserters from the years 1806 to 1810 exemption from punishment, which enabled Vianney to go back legally to Ecully, where he resumed his studies. In 1812 he went to the seminary at Verrieres. He was ordained a priest on August 13, 1815, and sent to Ecully, as assistant to the pastor Father Balley.

Curé d'Ars

Shortly after the death of Father Balley, Jean-Marie Vianney was appointed pastor of the parish of Ars (Curé d'Ars in French). Ars was a remote town not far from Lyon. As the pastor of Ars, Father Vianney realized that the Revolution's aftermath resulted in religious ignorance, due to many years of the destruction of the Catholic Church in France. At the time, Sundays in rural areas were spent in the fields working, or spent dancing and drinking in taverns. Vianney was astonished, especially since Sundays were meant to be reserved for religion. Father Vianney began by giving sermons referring to the tavern as "the devil's own shop, the market where souls are bartered, where the harmony of families are broken up, where quarrels start and murders are done." Father Vianney felt that he was called to bring his parishioners back to God.

Monsignor Balley was John's greatest inspiration, since he was a priest that remained loyal to his faith, despite the Revolution. "He risked his life to exercise his ministry" (Marshall 275). Vianney felt very compelled to fulfill the duties of a curé just as M. Balley did, even when it was illegal. As John began preaching his sermons each Sunday, the people of Ars became engaged in the Catholic faith, unlike before.

"The people noticed that he prayed with great recollection and celebrated mass with deep devotion. They noticed too, his mortified way of life, his love for the poor and the sick, his mild words to everyone. Very soon he had won the hearts of all" (John Cooper).

St. Vianney's incorrupt body is entombed above the main altar in the Basilica at Ars, France.

Later years

Jean Vianney began to be known internationally, and people from distant places began traveling to hear his sermons. "By 1855, the number of pilgrims had reached twenty thousand a year. During the last ten years of his life, he spent sixteen to eighteen hours a day in the confessional. Even the bishop forbade him to attend the annual retreats of the diocesan clergy because of the souls awaiting him yonder" (Otten, 1913)^[1]. At that time, a life-long friend of Vianney, the Venerable Father Colin was ordained a deacon. Even Mother Marie de la Providence, who founded the Helpers of the Holy Souls, was asking Vianney for advice. "His direction was characterized by common sense, remarkable insight, and supernatural knowledge" (Otten, 1913)^[1].

Vianney had a great devotion to St. Philomena, who was believed to be a Virgin Martyr of the early Church. Jean looked at her as his guardian and erected a chapel and a shrine in honor of the saint. The shrine still stands today. During May 1843, Vianney fell so ill he thought that his life was coming to its end. He asked St. Philomena to cure him and promised to give one hundred masses at her shrine. Twelve days later, Vianney was cured and he attributed his cure to St. Philomena.

Death and canonization

Statue of Jean-Marie Vianney in the church of a small village in France.

On August 4, 1859, Jean-Marie Vianney died at age seventy three. Biographers recorded miracles performed throughout his life, obtaining money for his charities and food for his orphans; he also had supernatural knowledge of the past and future, and could heal the sick, especially children. On October 3, 1874 Blessed Pius IX proclaimed him Venerable; on January 8, 1905, Saint Pius X declared him Blessed and proposed him as a model to the parochial clergy; in the year 1925 Pope Pius XI canonized him, and assigned August 8 as his feast day. This feast was inserted in the General Roman Calendar in 1928 with the rank of Double. The rank was changed to that of Third-Class Feast in 1960, and to an Obligatory Memorial in 1969, when the feast day was moved to the anniversary of the saint's death, August 4.

Sacerdotii Nostri Primordia

In 1959, Pope John XXIII issued Sacerdotii Nostri Primordia, an encyclical on St John Vianney, praising him 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.