Little John Marie Vianney, just four years old, was still playing when, on the other side of the world, a prophecy was published about… St. John Marie Vianney.
St. John Marie Vianney, exemplary model of a selfless priest, was a gift sent by God to the people of his time and for those of all time
In that year of 1790, Fr. Manuel Sousa Pereira, OFM, published in the city of Quito, Ecuador, a revelation that the Mother of Good Success had made to the Conceptionist nun Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres on December 8, 1634: “Starting in the 20th century, Priests shall love with all their soul St. John Marie Vianney, a servant of mine whom divine goodness is preparing as a gift in those times, giving them an exemplary model of a selfless priest.
“He will not be from a noble family, so that the world may know and understand that in God’s judgement there is no value except in profound virtue. This servant of mine – who, as I told you, will come into the world at the end of the 18th century – will love me with all his heart.”1
The Franciscan writer transcribed the prophecy without seeing it come true. Faith, however, told him that somewhere the prediction would come true. After all, it was ‘the end of the 18th century’…
And indeed, in faraway France, the Virgin proved that She never lies.
Shepherd, soldier and priest
On May 8, 1786, Mathieu and Marie Béluse’s fourth child was born. Baptized on the same day, he was given the name John Marie. He was not of noble lineage, according to Our Lady’s words; on the contrary, poverty was part of the daily sufferings of this shepherding family of Dardilly.
Always very religious, John Marie received his First Holy Communion at the age of thirteen, a precocious age for those days, and by the time he was twenty he had realized that his pastoral vocation far transcended the flocks and the staff: it was at the altar that he would immolate the true Lamb, and in the confessional that he would carry the wounded sheep on his shoulders.
To this end, he tried to learn Latin. He tried… because his ability did not go much further. Only after a pilgrimage, in which he asked to overcome his ignorance, was he able to make some progress. This, however, was soon curtailed by his conscription into the Napoleonic army in 1809.
Exasperated at seeing his efforts to join the militia of Christ fail, and disgusted at having to fight under the orders of a usurper at war with the Pope, he successfully deserted the French forces and knocked on the door of the major seminary.Nev They initially expelled him from there because they did not consider him suitable for the priesthood due to his intelligence – singular for its deficiency. Nevertheless, after a thousand trials and difficulties, he was ordained to the priesthood on August 13, 1815.
Almost three years later, in February 1818, he was assigned to the least of the towns in his diocese: Ars, a village that was home to around two hundred and fifty souls.
The famous monument of Ars
From then on, this quiet corner would become a great centre of spirituality.
As a priest, and the pastor of Ars, John Marie attracted multitudes, who flocked there seeking his advice or to at least receive a gaze
In fact, crowds soon began to flock to it. They travelled long distances to be with the parish priest of Ars, to hear his advice or at least to receive a look from him. His presence attracted, his admonitions moved inflexible hearts, his example compelled. People rushed to hold a place in the queue for his confessional, where they would kneel and ask for help, to “the ear that listens and transmits that disclosure only to God,” from “the mouth that answers, that guides, that consoles, that binds and unbinds, [and that] is truly the mouth of God. The Curé of Ars is that ear and that mouth. And he knows it.”2
In fact, everyone knows it! That is why the wait to be heard in Confession prolongs for days on end. But it is worth it, because when people, and especially saints, co-operate with God’s grace, they work real wonders in the souls of those around them! With good reason, “a living saint is more sought after than a dead saint.”3
Despite his simple way of being, his voice made hoarse by time and his somewhat ill-favoured physical appearance, St. John Marie Vianney, by his innocent soul, his presence marked by virtue and his candour in dealing with people, attracted souls from all over the world. “A priest who eats nothing, who does not sleep, who gives everything, who prays as no one has ever prayed, who celebrates Mass like an Angel and who makes his church magnificent, is a phenomenon that is too surprising”4 to not become perhaps the most visited monument in France at the time.
The tremendous attraction that made him the gravitational centre of an entire era was exerted, therefore, not so much through his apostolic labours, his parish management, the creation of groups and ministries, the originality of his sermons or even the charms of his music, as through the interior life that overflowed from his soul.
A Priest; in a word, everything!
The fascination aroused by St. John Marie came not only from the irresistible aroma of holiness, but also from his full, deep and humble awareness of his own calling: to teach, govern and sanctify others, living to exercise the mission of being another Christ as a priest.
In Confession, for example, “each time he listens like God, each time he responds like God; always with much trembling, because he is only His humble minister, but applying all his inner resources, and with the certainty that he is being revitalized by God.”5
It is this conviction which imparted to the Saint such a great veneration for the priesthood and enabled him to instil such high respect for God’s ministers in his parishioners.
His words as a preacher are too expressive to be omitted:
“Without the Sacrament of Holy Orders, we would not have the Lord. Who put Him there in that tabernacle? The priest. Who welcomed your soul at the beginning of your life? The priest. Who feeds your soul and gives it strength for its journey? The priest. Who will prepare it to appear before God, bathing it one last time in the Blood of Jesus Christ? The priest, always the priest.
“And if this soul should happen to die [as a result of sin], who will raise it up, who will restore its calm and peace? Again, the priest. […] Only in Heaven will he fully realize what he is. […] After God, the priest is everything!”6
At the foot of the Cross, with Mary
How can we understand the greatness of a man at whose command God descends from Heaven and dead souls are resurrected? The incomprehensibility of these supreme powers was perhaps what drew the crowds the most, because Fr. Vianney never trivialized these most sacred of all moments. On the contrary, “he was convinced that the fervour of a priest’s life depended entirely upon the Mass: ‘The reason why a priest is lax is that he does not pay attention to the Mass! My God, how we ought to pity a priest who celebrates [Mass] as if he were engaged in something routine!’”7
The Saint lived in accordance with the veneration he felt for the priesthood, in such a way as to become identified entirely by his ministry
The Curé of Ars lived in accordance with his high regard for the priesthood, to the point of identifying himself totally with his ministry. For this reason, he felt the need to continue the work of Redemption by renewing the Sacrifice of Calvary in an unbloody way, not only on the altar, but also in his daily life. Like St. John at the foot of the Cross with the Mother of God, he suffered with the One who immolates Himself daily at Holy Mass.
The crown and halo of all the saints, Marian devotion could not fail to adorn the soul of St. John Marie. The parish priest par excellence placed himself under the gaze and affection of the Lady of the Universe with the surrender and veneration of a small child. Thus, it was from experience that he would say: “Mary’s Heart is so tender towards us that the hearts of all the mothers gathered together are but a lump of ice at the feet of hers.”8
On the Calvary of his ministry
While it is true that every Christian, supported by the Queen of Martyrs, must follow Christ in the school of suffering, for a priest this configuration becomes much more profound, since he must suffer for himself and for those entrusted to his care. This essential point of Christianity was also taught by the patron Saint of priests in a simple but powerful way: “The cross is the ladder to Heaven. […] Whoever does not love the cross may be saved, but at great cost: he will be a tiny star in the firmament. He who has suffered and fought for God will shine like a beautiful sun.”9
St. John Marie Vianney’s life was marked from end to end by the splendours of this rising sun, that is, of the cross in all its different aspects, sizes and weights: the confessional, correspondence, desperate and insistent people, debts, the bad humor of his curate, the devil’s insolence, physical pain, the spikes of the cilice, food and sleep deprivation, as well as doubts about his vocation as a parish priest and the awareness of his misery; all of these weighed on him at the same time.10
The ordeal of this exemplary parish priest reached such a peak that he became a mystery even to science. He was even examined by doctors more than ten years before his death, who could not explain how he could still be alive in the midst of such an exhausting routine full of suffering.
But since, for the Christian, spilled blood is seed sown in the field, what harvest did the archetype of parish priests reap as a reward?
“Ars is no longer Ars”
On seeing his parish for the first time, St. John Marie remarked that at that moment there were only a few people there – no more than two hundred and thirty – but the day would come when Ars would not be able to contain the number of pilgrims who would flock to it! At the end of his life, this prophecy was fulfilled to the letter.
“Ars is no longer Ars,”11 preached Fr. Vianney from the pulplit. Everything about it had changed: the faithful, the church, even the city in its material aspect. What an immense transformation one priest was able to bring about in one of the smallest villages in France!
With Christ, with the ministerial grace received at ordination, with a deep and continuous devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, with a holy life, a priest is capable of carrying out the most extraordinary works, whether in the conversion of a parish, an entire country or even an entire society.
And so we understand how much “the good morals and the salvation of people depend on good pastors. If there is a good parish priest in charge of the parish, you will soon see devotion flourishing and people frequenting the Sacraments.”12
Vianney’s secret
Our Lady of Good Success indicates a sure path for all faithful priests to follow: imitate the total self-giving of the Curé d’Ars
Well, if the fervour of the flock depends on the pastor, what was the secret of the most successful parish priest? This is the answer he himself gave: “My secret is simple: give everything and hold nothing back.”13
This is the epilogue of the great work bequeathed by St. John Marie Vianney: the secret of apostolic success lies in an intense supernatural life. Hearts can only be set ablaze by the fire that dwells in the priest, souls will bear fruit only if they are fertilized by the blood of their farmer, the sheepfold will have green pastures only if its shepherd knows how to irrigate it with the heavenly dew of grace.
This is the path of every faithful priest. It is the path pointed out by Our Lady of Good Success: “Starting in the 20th century, priests shall love with all their soul St. John Marie Vianney.” And what does this mean if not that they must imitate him? ◊
Notes
1 PEREIRA, OFM, Manuel Sousa. Vida admirable de la Madre Mariana de Jesús Torres y Berriochoa. Quito: Jesús de la Misericordia, 2008, t.III, p.129.
2 GHÉON, Henri. O Cura d’Ars. São Paulo: Quadrante, 1986, p.75.
3 Idem, p.71.
4 Idem, p.49.
5 Idem, p.76.
6 MONNIN, Alfred. Esprit du Curé d’Ars. Dans ses catéchismes, ses homélies et sa conversation. 6.ed. Paris: Ch. Douniol, 1868, p.117-120.
7 BENEDICT XVI. Letter proclaiming a Year for Priests on the 150th Anniversary of the “dies natalis” of the Curé of Ars.
8 ST. JOHN MARIE VIANNEY. Pensamentos escolhidos do Cura d’Ars. Juiz de Fora: Lar Católico, 1937, p.37.
9 GHÉON, op. cit., p.92.
10 Cf. Idem, p.143.
11 Idem, p.55.
12 ST. ALPHONSUS MARIA LIGUORI, apud CHAUTARD, OCSO, Jean-Baptiste. A alma de todo apostolado. São Paulo: Coleção, 1962, p.56.
13 NODET, apud BENEDICT XVI, op. cit.
