The Life of St Jean-Marie Vianney
'Ars... is no longer Ars!'
The simple priesthood of St Jean Vianney changed a town and a world
On Tuesday evening, 9 February 1818, Antoine Givre, a boy herding sheep in the Dombes region, had an unusual encounter. He met a priest striding towards him, like a peasant on the road from Lyons. He was pushing a rickety cart heaped with objects, among which he could make out a wooden bedstead.
The priest called to the boy and asked him if it was much further to the village of Ars. Antoine pointed out to him the modest little town before them which was disappearing into the darkness. "How small it is!" the priest murmured. Then he knelt on the frozen ground and prayed at length, his eyes fixed on the houses.
'I will show you the way to heaven'
As he rose and set out again with his cart, the boy was at his side. When they arrived in front of the poor church, the priest said to him: "Thank you for showing me the way to Ars... I will show you the way to Heaven."
Ars, with its population of 200 who depended on the Parish of Misèrieux in the Diocese of Lyons, was unaware that it was welcoming its chaplain, Fr Jean-Marie Vianney.
He was born in Dardilly, near Lyons, on 8 May 1786, the son of Mathieu Vianney and Marie Béluze, poor peasants with a strong faith.
His childhood was marked by the tragic events of the French Revolution. While the Jacobins, supported by the Freemasons, were organizing the hunt for priests and sending them and their faithful to the guillotine, Jean-Marie was studying catechism in secret and fell hopelessly in love with Jesus. The Crucified One must indeed deserve all, the young man thought, if so many thousands of youth and adults, priests and lay people were giving their lives for him, tolerating even the most atrocious torture.
The 'Curé d'Ars'
It was during a Mass celebrated secretly behind barred doors by an anti-Revolution priest in a home near Écully, close to his native parish, that Jean-Marie received his First Communion, which strengthened him in his inmost desire.
"I will be a priest," he affirmed.
Overcoming enormous difficulties, he was ordained to the priesthood on 13 August 1815, in the chapel of the Seminary at Grenoble. From that time an adventure began for a tiny French town that down the centuries would never be forgotten: they were to receive their "Curé d'Ars."
The day after his arrival he was almost alone as he made his way toward the altar to celebrate Mass. But a few days later, when some came to see what another priest could possibly have come to do at Ars and how he lived, the faithful found him on his knees in prayer before the Tabernacle, as though he truly saw Someone: they found him in the same position, morning, afternoon, evening and even at night.
When some started coming to his Sunday Mass, they realized they understood what he was saying: he was talking about God, who rewarded the good with Paradise and punished the wicked with hell; about his Son, Jesus Christ, who came to die on the Cross to expiate the sins of the world, of his infinite love, of his forgiveness for those who change their way of life, of the joy that comes from him alone.
They were simple words, words of fire, unforgettable words that won the heartfelt admiration of the people.
Still others came to hear him. The same thing could happen today, if our priests were to preach like that and not about abstruse things.
Prayer, fasting, penance
The food he lived on became known through some pious ladies who went to help him at home: a little dry bread, a few boiled potatoes. They also told of traces of blood they had seen on his very plain clothing.
He had looked around and seen the sins of his people and had begun a ruthless fight against these evils with prayer, fasting and penance, offering his whole life to God with the Crucified One.
When he listened to his people, he was kind, meek and very gentle, a true father with a marvellous message for them: love for Jesus Christ, intimacy with him, so that even the most rebellious could not resist his fascination.
Even those who were the most remote from God, the most recalcitrant sinners, soon felt that God had sent a saint to Ars and hastened to listen to him.
Little by little, the tiny town was transformed. Those who saw and heard him felt drawn to his confessional: whole lives were converted, people returned to God, won over by his prayers and his "blood."
Dancing, drunkenness and swearing, things the Curé condemned most severely, disappeared from the town. Even the most dissolute young men changed their ways. The church was filled with people, including those who started to come from neighbouring environs.
In 1823, the Bishop raised Ars to the rank of parish. Fr Vianney wanted to leave, for he felt unworthy to be a "parish priest", but he remained out of obedience.
In 1827, he cried out to his parishioners with his heart full of joy: "Ars, my brothers and sisters, is no longer Ars!"
His method: being a priest
What was his method? What analyses had he made, what pastoral plans had he organized? In a word: None!
He had only his priesthood, lived to the point where he truly became, more and more, day by day, "another Christ."
His priesthood brought him to a most exalted state: "Since the priest is important", he wrote, "the priest will only be understood in Heaven. If we were to understand him on this earth, we would die of love.
"After God, the priest is everything. Leave a parish without a priest for 20 years and beasts will be worshipped there", as happens today, to the satisfaction of God's enemies who seek to corrupt priests in order to corrupt his people.
No one has expressed better than he how "frightful" it is to be a priest, to have the mandate to absolve people and to make God present in a host: "How a priest is to be pitied when he celebrates Mass as an ordinary event. How unfortunate is a priest without an inner life!"
Fr Vianney celebrated Mass early in the morning and it was apparent to everyone that he was fulfilling the Sacrifice of the Son of God on the Cross. He was absolutely certain that Mass is everything, because it is from this sacrifice that salvation comes, and in those moments God is adored as befits him.
"If I were to meet a priest and an angel", he used to say, "I would greet the priest first and then the angel.... If there were no priest, the passion and death of Jesu