Biography
Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney grew up during the French Revolution, when attending Mass was illegal and priests were executed. He struggled immensely with his studies, especially Latin, and was almost denied ordination. Assigned to the remote, spiritually indifferent farming village of Ars, he sparked a massive spiritual revival through his severe fasting, fervent preaching, and extraordinary ability in the confessional. He could read souls and know unconfessed sins. Pilgrims flocked from all over Europe to see him; in his later years, he spent 12 to 16 hours a day in the confessional. For 35 years, he was physically harassed at night by the devil (whom he called 'the grappin').
Miracles & Signs
- ✦Reading the hidden sins of thousands of penitents
- ✦Multiplying grain during a famine to feed the orphans
- ✦His body remains incorrupt
Wisdom & Quotes
“If we really understood the Mass, we would die of joy.”
“The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.”
“You either belong wholly to the world or wholly to God.”