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Tomorrow, Aug. 9, is the feast of St. John Vianney. He was pastor of a remote French village and so he is often known as the Cure of Ars.

A visitor today might see a white-washed priest’s house near a chapel. In the dingy kitchen is a common sauce-pan and a long- handled pan. On the floor is a burnt plank which was used as a bed. In another room is a well-worn cassock, a flat hat with a very wide brim, and a pair of large unblackened peasant shoes.

If we move into the old church we see old benches, pictures, statues, a pulpit. Nearby is a confessional. Not far away in the new church lies the body of the man, who spent 40 years in these surroundings.

This pastor came to Ars in 1818. He had been born John Marie Vianney in Dardllly, near Lyons, on May 8, 1786, during the era of the French Revolution. He knew what It was to live under persecution, for all priests were hunted to death. As a boy John attended Mass and received Holy Communion secretly In his barn.

John was the third of six children; he was 18 years old when he sought consent from his father to become a priest. Because the father was a poor farmer he could not immediately release his helpful son, and John was 20 years old when he finally received permission.

In the seminary at Lyons John did not shine as a brilliant student. He failed in his studies and he had to leave the seminary for the private teaching of a Father Bailey at Ecully. After three months of private tutoring John took an examination and failed miserably.

Then it was that his teacher went privately to one of his examiners. At his request the president of the seminary and one examiner agreed to question Vianney privately. In their report to the Vicar of the Bishop they said that John was “the most unlearned, but the most devoted seminarian in Lyons.”

The Vicar asked a few simple questions, “Is Vianney good? Has he a devotion to Our Lady? Does he say his rosary?'’ The professors replied, “He is a model of goodness.” “Very well,” said the Vicar, “then let him be ordained. The grace of God will do the rest.” It was in 1815, long before I.Q. tests, and a few months after the genius Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, that John was ordained a priest.

A priest is vesting

His time of questing

Dreams is passed, Now at last

A Christ he stands.

  The first appointment of the new priest was to his former teacher, Father Bailey. Each in time reported the other to the Bishop for excessive mortification. Thus are assistants made saints by their pastors.

It was in 1818 that Father Bailey died and the Bishop said to Father John Vianney, “Thirty miles from here, my dear friend, in the district of Trevoux, the village of Ars is without a priest. The church there is a chapel-of-ease. serving about 200 souls. There’s not much love of God in this village. Your job will be to instill it .”

What do we mean by a parish priest, sometimes called a secular, or diocesan priest? The Church is divided like a checker board, into parts called dioceses, ruled by Bishops, all under Peter the Holy Father. The diocese, In turn, is subdivided into parishes marked off in definite boundaries.The parish priest therefore is the keystone of the entire organization of the Church.

Within the territory of certain parishes we sometimes find houses in which a religious community lives. Religious bodies have been started at certain times in the history of the Church for a definite specialized work. They often come into being because of an emergency and cease to exist after a span of years.

This noble example to his sheep he gave.

That flrst he wrought, and afterward he taught.

To draw his fold to heaven by fairness

By good example, was his business.

There were two Frenchmen whose features were somewhat alike; one was John Vianney and the other was Voltaire. The later said, “Throw enough mud and some will stick.” The former set up a means for converting a stubborn parish, “You’ve preached? You’ve prayed? Have you fasted? Have you scourged yourself? Have you slept on bare boards? As long as you haven’t done that you’ve no right to complain.”

Saint John Vianney, the patron of parish priests, spent 16 hours a day in the confessional. The devil, with whom he had physical combat, is said to have revealed that the Cure had taken more than 80,000 souls out of his evil power.

In 1859 St. John Viannev was 73 years old: on July 29 he went to his sick bed, where he died on Aug. 4.

A better priest. I trow that nowhere none is.

He waited for no pomp end reverence.

Nor maked him a spiced conscience.

But Christes lore, and is apostles twelve,

He taught, and first he followed it himself.

Source: Catholic Research Resources Alliance,The Monitor, Volume CI, Number 15, 8 August 1958