St. John Mary Vianney
Born: May 8, 1786
Died: August 4, 1859
Feast Day: August 4
Patron of: parish priests
Books on the lives of the saints are filled with stories of people who wanted to be in one place and found God calling them to another. Saint John Mary Vianney was in just the opposite pickle: he wanted to be someplace else, but God kept dragging him back home.
Vianney was 3 years old when the French Revolution turned the country upside down in 1789. From the time of his First Communion knew he wanted to be a priest, but that dream was a long time in coming. Among other misadventures, he was mistakenly drafted into Napoleon’s army and ended up a deserter because he was in church praying as his regiment left town.
Vianney stumbled through his seminary years, seeking the help of private tutors, and eventually was ordained at age 30. He was a perpetual headache to his seminary teachers because he had never learned Latin; he finally found a priest sympathetic enough to teach him in French. Legend has it that the local bishop finally ordained him simply because he was so impressed with his devotion and simplicity.
Vianney tried to make the best of a bad situation when he was given a parish at Ars-en-Dombres, a lonely hamlet of 230 people. He slowly came to be known as a great confessor—a “reader of souls”—a role that guaranteed him no sleep and no solitude for the rest of his days.
After several years in Ars, pilgrims began visiting from all over France to listen to his quiet words in the confessional. He eventually spent nearly eighteen hours of every day hearing confessions and was reportedly haunted at night by poltergeists trying to keep him awake by making noise and setting his bed on fire.
During each of his 41 years at Ars, Vianey wished to be gone. He felt he was cut out for a life of prayer and solitude, and in fact he ran away three times to join a monastery. Each time, he was cajoled back by his bishop or his parishioners. One wonders also if the innkeepers of Ars, who doubtless made fortunes from the thousands of pilgrims each year, prayed as fervently as the faithful for his return.
Two of his many simple truths that speak as loudly today as they did in his lifetime are: “God commands you to pray, but he forbids you to worry” and “A humble person, if his opinion is asked, gives it in all simplicity and leaves others to give theirs. Whether they are right or wrong, he says no more.”
Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, died on August 4, 1859. It might be understandable, after spending all those hours hearing confessions, that hours hearing confessions, that he almost welcomed death: “Our home is heaven. On earth we are like travelers staying at a hotel. When one is away, one is always thinking of going home.”
Originally published in Salt magazine, ©Claretian Publications.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
