m
 




 w A Soul Awakens Pw According to the account of Marguerite: ´her
Pw §ean-Marie brother was so happy that he did not want to
Vianney was born leave the room where he had had the joy of
in May 8, 
86, in communicating for the first time 
Chante²Merle
Valley, Dardilly,
near Lyon, France
3 w Vocation ²  The ´6nvoluntary Deserter ²
Pw Dedicated to the
Blessed Virgin Pw 6n his teenage years, §ean-Marie was not attracted
while still in the by noisy games, loose talk and doubtful company
womb«
Pw Baptized on the Pw preferred silence over boisterous laughter
same day of his
birth« Pw He was devoted to the Gospels and to the
Pw th Child of Matthieu Vianney and his wife Marie, 6mitation of Christ«
both farmers by profession« His was a modest
but religious family (His elders siblings were Pw He entered the seminary under Abbé Balley at the
Francios, Catherine; his younger sister was age of , through the efforts of his mother«
Marguerite)
Pw §ean-Marie·s classmates were - year-olds,
Pw He instantly became the favorite of his mother with lightning quick memory Naturally, he was
Pw He became a prodigy in matters of faith and struggling to keep up with their learning
devotion«How? process«
Pw At  months old, his mother was already
teaching him how to make the sign of the cross Pw He got discouraged«his memory was often his
by tracing his hands« downfall«he called his memory ´horrible head;
Pw His older sisters and mother would tell him However, Abbé Balley encouraged him to go on;
stories about God and Holy Persons, especially and so, he remained«
those in the Bible«
Pw uhen he was  years old, he already learned how Pw He flung himself more passionately to prayer;
among his prayers was for the grace of attaining
to pray seriously: one day he was seen praying
the priesthood«
alone in front of Mary·s statuette
Pw At the age of 5, he was accompanying his mother Pw 6n October8, §ean-Marie received an order
to the early morning Mass summoning him to present himself on the 6th of
Pw At age
, he became attracted to the priesthood; the month at a barracks in Lyons to fulfill a
he realized that priests were indeed a necessity³ mandatory military service
esp for the salvation of souls
Pw At age 8, he was already preaching to his Pw One day, when he was given a marching order,
playmates: he repeated phrases from the Gospels he was marching towards Bayonne (France) and
and Scriptural stories stopped at a church

Pw He became lost in prayer« his companions

 w First Communion
Pw 6n one morning of §une 
, (i e , towards the
end of the month), §ean-Marie received his First
Holy Communion from Abbé Groboz in the
parish of Ecully
marched ahead and he was left behind; he tried
to overtake them, but to no avail«
Pw This incident, so simple it may seem, would then
become one of the most crucial moments of his
life, for it changed his destiny forever« who
knows? 6f he had marched on, he might be
among those killed in battle«

5 w The Ascent to the Priesthood
Pw He studied Philosophy in the §unior Seminary of
Verrières, near Montbrison
Pw at 6, he was the oldest of  pupils
Pw He did well in most of the subjects, except in
Church Latin«
Pw During one of the major exams, he received a
failing mark ¶d· or ¶zero·«
Pw At that time, the ¶d· mark automatically ruled out
the candidate from acceptance for the
priesthood«
Pw Consequently, in December 83, §ean-Marie
had to leave the seminary
Pw However, upon the advice of a childhood friend
§ean Dumond, he went back to the seminary and
was given a warm welcome
Pw He continued in his studies, but was given
regular tutorials in Latin«
Pw Before being admitted to the Holy Orders, two
superiors deliberated on him:
Abbé Courbon: ´6s Monsieur Vianney
devout? Has he a special veneration for
Our Lady? Can he say his rosary?
Abbé Bochard: ´Yes, he·s a model of
devotion
Abbé Courbon: ´Very well, 6 will take
him The grace of God will do the rest
Pw On §uly , 8, he received the four minor
orders (porter, lector, exorcist, and acolyte) and
the major order of the subdiaconate
Pw On §une 3, 85, he was ordained deacon
Pw About  months later, August 3, he was
ordained priest at the age of  (which was
considered ¶old· already at that time)
^
 0
6 w Curate at Ecully
Pw He was assigned as assistant to Abbé Balley at
Ecully right after his ordination
Pw Through Abbé Balley, §ean Marie came to know
and venerate St Philomena, whom he would have
a lasting devotion«
Pw He became an exceptional priest, whose charity
and goodness became a talk of the town
Pw On February 88, he was transferred to the
village of Ars, a small town with about 
parishioners
Pw He was warned by the vicar general: ´There·s not
much love of God in this village 6t is for you to
teach them 

w The Chaplain of Ars
Pw On his way to Ars, Abbé Vianney met a little boy
called Anthony Givre, who gave him directions
The good priest said, ´My little friend, you have
shown me the road to Ars; 6 will show you the
road to Heaven «
Pw Together with his carter, he arrived in Ars on
February , 88, bringing with him his clothes,
his books, and his bed
Pw The st place he went was his church: no lamp
was lit before the sanctuary and that the
tabernacle was empty«
Pw 6ndeed, his vicar general was right: there was not
much love of God in the place
Pw Ars was not only poor; it was a place whose
moral standard was on a rapid decline
Pw one day, he cried out: ´My God, grant me the
conversion of my parish!
Pw 6n order to effect what he asked from God, he
subjected himself to the most savage abstinence
Pw 6n his room, one can find a little box, which hid
his iron disciplines which he used for flagellating
himself


 

Pw 6n the corner of his room, opposite the door, one
can find that the plaster is splashed with
bloodstains
Pw 6n between his mattress and the sheet he slipped
a broad plank
8 w Converting the Parish
Pw Ars was a victim of  sins: (a) Religious ignorance
& Sunday uork , (b) passion for pleasure (dance)
jw [
s I
´w there was no Catechesis, esp for
the youth«
´w 6t was natural for the adults to
work in the fields on Sundays«
´w Consequently, the small society
grew uninterested with religious
matters«
´w He set out to put the Blessed
Sacrament as the center of life in
the parish«
jw { founder·s sanctity
´w Dances were the chief occasion of
sin for the people of Ars
´w On ordinary Sunday afternoons,
men and girls dressed up, the
village cafés were filled, and then
couples would set about
organizing an open-air dance to
the tune of some local violinists«
´w 6n his war on impurity, he was
utterly uncompromising: he
refused absolution to anyone who
had danced«
´w He forced them to search their
hearts«there were many who
eventually surrendered and
promised not to dance
anymore«
´w Once, he intercepted the violinist
and paid him double the price
just to go back home so that there
would be no dance for the day!
^
 [
 w Victory
´w 6t took him more than ten years to completely
wipe out dancing in his parish
´w He had won the more modest girls to Christian
life
´w He was able to exclaim: ´My brethren, Ars is no
longer Ars!«indeed Ars was changed beyond
recognition
´w He was able to beautify the Church from the
inside out
´w People began to be ashamed of not doing good
and of not practicing their religion
´w Many visitors started to flock to Ars and saw the
serenity and peace of the inhabitants
 wThe House of ´Providence
´w 6n 8
, he founded a home for orphaned or
abandoned girls called ´Providence
´w This orphanage did an enormous amount of
good: many became good wives, some even
became nuns«6t was indeed a reflection of the
 wThe Devil Hits Back
´w Men in the cafes cried out: ´uhy, there·s not a
girl in Ars now who·s not at church or safely
attached to her mother·s apron-strings«Let him
go back where he came from, the spoilsport uhy
can·t he let us drink and dance and enjoy
ourselves in peace?
´w They persecuted him, called him names, and
falsely accused him of immoral practices in his
confessional and in his church
´w He encountered the devil many times; he calls the
Evil One ´Old Snatch, who was trying to wear
him down by depriving him of his sleep
´w The devil redoubled his attacks on him every time
there were penitents coming into the church for
confession


 

´w Sometimes he was tempted to give up and go to a
Trappist monastery
´w However, the Cure d·Ars showed that he had
power over the Evil One
´w uhile exorcists normally need long hours of
prayer, a simple sign of the cross or a brief order
would make ´Old Snatch obey him
´w As years passed by, these diabolic visitations
became less frequent and tormenting
 wThe Crowds Come to Ars
´w His reputation as a holy priest became so
widespread that in 8
, pilgrims started to
come They came in the hope of seeing a
saint«or of confessing to him their sins
´w From 83²85, a daily average of some 
travelers arrived at Ars
´w visitors were standing, in great numbers, in the
old churchyard and even in the adjoining streets,
waiting for their turn
´w Pilgrims who could not find a fine lodge or hotel
in Ars camped out all night in the fields found the
village just to wait for their turn to see or confess
to him
3 wMass and Catechism Classes
´w uhen he celebrates the Holy Eucharist, he never
took more than 3 mins
´w He acquired the best liturgical vestments possible
and used them with delight in his masses
´w He would become completely lost in God,
sometimes he would cry
´w The collection of his catechism and preachings
was published in 86
´w He had a simple and natural eloquence (sample
sermons are found in the book)
 w6n the Confessional
´w For about 3 years, the Cure d·Ars almost literally
shut himself up inside the confessional
^
 
´w He possessed the gift of reading into the souls and
giving them the best possible advice for their
sins«
´w He was both strict to the hardest of sinners, and
kind to those truly repentant ones
5 w- 6 The Last Twenty Years
´w He longed to leave the parish once for all: More
than once he asked his bishop·s permission to
retire into a monastery: either Trappist or
Carthusian
´w On Sept , 83, he attempted to leave the
place, only to retrace back his steps after he had
travelled for more than  miles already!
´w Providence had ceased to be an orphanage and
became a formal school reserved for village girls
´w He put up a foundation and also an Association
for lay mission work: ´Association for the
Propagation of the Faith
´w His Bishop made him honorary canon of his
chapter
´w On August , 855, he was nominated to the
rank of chevalier in the 6mperial Order of the
Legion of Honor

wThe Human Side of the Cure D· Ars
´w He was a little priest, his shoulders rather bent,
had blue eyes, his face had deep wrinkles and set
in a frame of long white hair
´w He was a very polite human being
´w He retained his naturally good personality:
charming expressions and a sense of humor
´w Although he possessed a certain gift of reading
the depths of one·s soul, he was also keenly
observant in spotting the weaknesses and defects
of everyone he met
´w He also had a special affection for children and at
times, he was like §esus being surrounded by
these innocent and small human beings
8 wThe Saint


 

There were countless evidences and witnesses to the
sanctity of the Cure d·Ars:
´w His last doctor, §ean Baptiste Saunier, who visited
him from 8 to 85, considered him the
´perfect model of all the virtues
´w A parish priest of a neighboring town said of him
´6 have never seen a truer copy of the divine
Master
´w He possessed virtues to a heroic degree: he
practiced during his lifetime all his duties as a
priest in an outstanding fashion
´w 6t was his love of God and his enthusiasm for the
glory of God that inspired in him such a devotion
for souls and such compassion for sinners
´w His life was truly spent in long hours of crushing
ministry without interruption
´w Although he was being admired as a celebrity, he
never became proud of it: ´6 am the last of men!
he·d say
´w He mortified his senses to maximum
´w His meals were spartan in austerity: boiled
potatoes eaten cold or even when spoiled
´w he was wearing round his waist an iron chain an
inch thick with spikes sticking out of it; he also
wore iron bracelets with sharp spikes on both his
arms
´w He wore a hair shirt which he never took off (as
evidenced by the sore it gave him)
 w-  Miracles in the Life of the Cure D· Ars
´w His miracles included cures, supernatural
intuitions and mystical experiences,
instantaneous transformation of guilty souls,
immediate cure of the crippled and the sick
´w He was able to probe deep into the person·s
conscience and revealed their secrets, foretold the
future and pierced with his gaze into the
mysteries of the next world
´w On many occasions, he would mention the name
of someone whom he never met before and tell
^
 º
him his sins or his future or his present ordeal
and its solution
´w One night, a girl who was coming to consult him
in the sacristy about a very serious problem, saw
him in ecstasy;
´w on a similar scenario, a priest saw him being
lifted up in his kneeler while reciting the evening
prayers, his face was transfigured and his head
was surrounded by a halo
 w Death and Glorification
´w The Curé himself foretold the day of his own
death Days before his death he was still hearing
confessions, albeit suffering from occasional
suffocations due to an overcrowded church
´w At  am, August , 85, Thursday, he passed
away peacefully
´w A multitude of pilgrims, admirers and
parishioners gathered on the morning of
Saturday, Aug 6, to escort the saint·s coffin to its
last rest: 6, thousand lay people, 3 priests
´w The entire Church knew that a saintly priest had
just died
´w Nov , 86 ² March 6, 865: Ordinary·s
Process (the diocese established a committee to
inquire into the life, virtues, miracles and
writings of the Curé d·Ars
´w Feb 6, 866: start of ´Apostolic Process (the
diocesan level of enquiry into his life, virtues,
miracles and writings)
´w Oct 3, 8
: he was Declared Venerable by Pope
Pius 6
´w §une 
, : his body was exhumed and was
covered with a slab of marble
´w §an 8, 5: declared blessed by Pius  and gave
him as patron to all the parish priests of France
and the French colonies
´w May 3, 5: declared a saint by Pius 6,
together with St Therese of the Child §esus
´w April 3, : declared by Pius 6 ´patron of all
the priests in the world
´w Ars was to become the supreme place of
pilgrimage for priests and even bishops that they
may gain new strength to practice the virtues and
show the spirit of their calling