Jean-Marie Vianney
Life of the great Saint John Vianney (1786-1859). He barely succeeded in becoming a priest, but from the humblest parish
imaginable, he became the "Patron Saint of Parish Priests" everywhere.
Jean-Marie Vianney, a farm boy born
during the French Revolution, longed to become a priest. But he could not learn Latin, and it seemed as if the humble,
lovable, slow-thinking Jean-Maire would never be ordained. He did at last become a priest, and such a holy one that
St. Jean-Marie Vianney is invoked as the patron saint and model of parish priests everywhere. To many he is known, not by
name, but simply as "Le Cure d'Ars,"(the priest of Ars) the parish priest who devoted his life to the little village of
Ars and so successfully led his people to sanctity that he became a prime target of the devil.
Composed when he was a young priest, The Sermons of the Cure of Ars constitutes one of the most powerful Saints'
writings in the literature of the Church. Covering a wide range of vital moral and doctrinal issues for the average
layman, St. John
Vianney probes quickly, incisively and with total candor into the various sins we are prone to commit and that we might
make excuses for or cover up with various rationalizations. None of this mental sleight-of-hand escapes the Cure's
exposure; therefore, we see sin for what it is, human weakness for what it is, and how we need the Catholic truth to shed
light on our hidden faults and God's grace through the Sacraments in order to be truly good.
Among others,
Saint John Vianney addresses the following topics: The Duties of Parents, Duties of the Mother, Duties of the Pregnant
Woman, Annual Confessions, How Death Will Reveal Thieves, Do you Want to be Happy, The Gift of Every Day, Purity Is Not
Known, Be Religious or Be Damned, The Dreadful State of the Lukewarm Soul, Lost Works, Prayer Commands All, Repairing the
Wrong Done, Bad Company, etc. the reader will soon realize why over 100,000 people journeyed to Ars every year to see
first-hand this incredible Saint!
Today over 500,000 visit Ars each year! St. John Vianney's feast day is August 4.
