BIOGRAPHY OF THE HOLY CURE OF ARS
His feast is celebrated on August 4
His real name was San Juan Bautista Mara Vianney, but throughout the world he is known by the name of Cura d’Ars. He was born in Dardilly, near Lyon (France), on May 8, 1786. After a normal childhood, at the age of seventeen Juan María conceived the great desire to become a priest. His father, although a good Christian, puts up some obstacles, which are finally overcome. The young man begins his studies in the seminary, leaving the tasks of the field to which he had been dedicated until then.
Juan María continued his priestly studies in Verrires first and then in the major seminary of Lyn. All his superiors recognize the admirable behavior of the seminarian, but…, lacking the necessary knowledge of Latin, he does not get any benefit from his studies and, finally, he is dismissed from the seminary. He tries to enter the brothers of the Christian Schools, without success. The thing seemed to have no solution when, once again, an exceptional priest crosses his path: Father Balley, who had directed his first studies. he lends himself to continue preparing him, and after a couple of years of study he obtains from the vicar general his admission to orders. Finally, on August 13, 1815, the bishop of Grenoble, Monsignor Simon, ordained him a priest, at the age of 29. However, the Holy Priest was happy to achieve what he had longed for for so many years, and by dint of so many hardships, efforts and humiliations, he had had to achieve: the priesthood.
For three years, from 1815 to 1818, he continued to learn theology with Father Balley, at Ecully, with the consideration of his curate. Father Balley died, and after finishing his studies, the archbishopric of Lyn entrusted him with the pastoral care of a tiny village, thirty-five kilometers north of the capital, called Ars.
On February 9, 1818, Saint John Mary arrived in Ars. small town that you will practically never leave again.
We can distinguish in the parish activity of San Juan María two fundamental aspects, which in a certain way also correspond to two phases of his life.
As long as the great pilgrimage to Ars did not begin, the priest was able to live entirely consecrated to his parishioners. And so we see him visiting them from house to house; paternally caring for children and the sick; spending a great deal of money on the enlargement and beautification of the church; fraternally helping their peers from neighboring towns. It is true that all this is accompanied by a life of amazing penance, of intense prayer, of charity, on some occasions carried to the extreme for the poor. But San Juan Mara does not exceed in this first part of his life the usual framework in the activities of a rural priest.
We have already said that the Saint used to help, with fraternal charity, his companions in the parish missions that were organized in the surrounding towns. In all of them the Saint left a great reputation for his prayer, his penance and his exemplary character. It was logical that those good peasants would later resort to him, when difficulties arose, or simply to confess and receive again the good advice they had heard from his lips. This was the beginning of the famous pilgrimage of parishioners to Ars. What at first was only a local phenomenon, confined almost to the dioceses of Lyon and Belley, later grew more and more, in such a way that the Curé of Ars became famous throughout France and even throughout Europe. Pilgrims began to flock from everywhere, books were published to serve as a guide, and it is well known that a special ticket office was set up at the Lyn station to dispatch round-trip tickets to Ars. That poor priest, who had painstakingly completed his studies, and whom the diocesan authority had relegated to one of the smallest and least devout towns in the diocese, was going to become a sought-after counselor for thousands and thousands of souls. And among them would be people of all conditions, from distinguished prelates and famous intellectuals, to very humble sick people and poor troubled people who would go to seek some consolation in him.
This influx of people was going to completely alter his life. It arrives in which the Holy Cure will ignore his own town, locked up as he will spend the day between the miserable boards of his confessional. Then the most impressive miracle of his entire life will take place: the simple fact that he could subsist with that kind of life.
Because that man, for whom the years are already passing, will sustain as usual the following distribution of time: get up at one in the morning and go to church to pray. Before dawn, the women’s confessions begin. At six in the morning in summer and seven in winter, celebration of mass and thanksgiving. Afterwards, it remains for a while at the disposal of the pilgrims. At about ten o’clock, he prays a part of his breviary and returns to the confessional. He leaves at eleven o’clock to make the famous explanation of the catechism, a very simple preaching, but full of an anointing so penetrating that it produces abundant conversions. At noon, he takes the meager meal from him, often standing up, and without neglecting people who request something from him. On his way to and from the parsonage, he passes through the crowd, and there are times when those meters take half an hour to cover. After Vespers and Compline, he returns to the confessional until nightfall. After the evening prayers, he retires to finish the Breviary. And then he takes a few short hours of rest on the hard bed. Only a supernatural prodigy could allow the Saint to subsist physically, poorly fed, short of sleep, deprived of air and sun, subjected to such an exhausting task as that of the confessional.
As if that were not enough, his penances were extraordinary, and so those who cared for him could see him with admiration and sometimes with horror. Years and illnesses prevented him from sleeping peacefully enough.
God manifestly blessed his activity. The one who had barely completed his studies, developed with wonderful firmness in the pulpit, without time to prepare, and resolved very delicate problems of conscience in the confessional. It is more: after his death, there were testimonies, abundant beyond belief, of his gift of discernment of consciences. To one person it reminded him of a forgotten sin, to another he clearly manifested his vocation, to another he opened his eyes to the dangers in which he found himself, to other people who had in their hands works of great importance for the Church of God, he misdirected them. veil of the future… With simplicity, almost as if it were a matter of hunches or ideas, the Saint showed that he was in intimate contact with God Our Lord and was frequently enlightened by him.
Let us not imagine, however, the Saint as a being completely detached from all humanity. Before the opposite. We preserve the testimony of people, belonging to the highest spheres of that punctilious French society of the 19th century, who left Ars admiring his courtesy and kindness. Nor is this alone. A thousand anecdotes preserve the memory of his sharp sense of humor. He knew how to deal gracefully with the situations in which his enthusiasts sometimes put him. Thus, when the bishop named him a canon, his coadjutor insisted one day that, according to French custom, he wear his mozzetta. Oh my friend! -he replied smiling-, I am smarter than you imagined. They expected to taunt me, seeing her on my shoulders, and I have hunted them down. However, you see, so far you are the only one to whom the Lord Bishop has given that appointment. Natural. He was so unlucky the first time that he didn’t want to try his luck again.
But where his deep human sense shone the most was in the foundation of La Providencia, that little house that, without any determined plan, in the arms exclusively of charity, the priest founded to welcome the poor little orphans of the surroundings. Among the most moving human documents, due to their own simplicity and love, will always be the Memoirs that Catalina Lassagne wrote about the Holy Cure. He put her in charge of the work and she stayed there until, whoever had the authority to do so, decided that things should be done differently. But the Saint’s own reaction then showed to what extent coexisted in him, along with a deep sense of surrendered obedience, a no less sense of human tenderness. For the rest, if ever in the world a miracle has been told simply, it was when Catalina narrated what happened to her one day when there was a lack of flour. She consulted the priest and made her companion start kneading, with the most innocent simplicity, the little that was left and that certainly was not enough for four loaves. As she kneaded, the dough thickened. She adds water. At last she was full of dough, and she made a batch of ten large 20 to 22 pound loaves. The good thing is that, when the two women go excitedly to the priest, she limits herself to exclaiming: The good Lord is very good. Take care of poor him.
On Friday, July 29, 1859, he felt unwell. But I went down, as always, to the church at one in the morning. However, he could not resist all morning in the confessional and had to go out to get some air. Before the eleven o’clock catechism she ordered some wine, sipped a few drops spilled into the palm of his hand, and went up to the pulpit. He didn’t understand him, but it was the same. His eyes bathed in tears, turning towards the tabernacle, said it all. He continued to confess, but already at night it was seen that he was mortally wounded. You rested badly and asked for help. The doctor will be able to do nothing. Call the priest of Jassans.
Now he allowed himself to be cared for like a child. She didn’t flinch when a mattress was put on her hard bed. He obeyed the doctor. And a moving event occurred. He had said that there was some hope if he eased the heat a bit. And on that hot August day, the residents of Ars, not knowing what to do to keep their dearest priest, went up to the roof and spread out sheets that they kept damp all day. It was not be for lowerly. The whole town saw, bathed in tears, that their priest was already leaving them. The same Bishop of the Diocese came to share his pain. After an emotional farewell from his good father and pastor, the Holy Cure no longer thought of anything but dying. And indeed, with heavenly peace, on Thursday, August 4, at two in the morning, while his young coadjutor prayed the beautiful words that the holy Angels of God come to meet you and introduce you to heavenly Jerusalem, gently, without agony, as a worker who has finished his day well, the Curé of Ars gave his soul to God.
Thus has come true what he said in a memorable morning catechism: My God, how time weighs me down with sinners! When to be with the saints? Then we will say to the good Lord: My God, I see you and I have you, you will never, ever escape from me.
He was canonized by Pope Pius XI on May 31, 1925, who three years later, in 1928, named him Patron Saint of the Parish Priests. Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed Saint John Mara Vianney “Patron of all priests in the world” on June 19, 2009. His body is preserved INCORRUPT in the Basilica of Ars. His feast is celebrated on August 4.
Subscribe to Javier’s Catholic Web mailing list for free to receive weekly updates.