St. John Maria Vianney: Curé d’Ars - Bon Pasteur d’Ars - Gardien des âmes

How many Catholic priests are strong enough to spend as many as 16 hours a day to hear confessions today?  Is your parish priest committed to his pastoral ministry as diligently as such?

Back in the post-revolution France and the time of Napoleon, there was a parish priest who actually spent as many as 16 hours a day in confessionary to ensure that people, whom he shepherded as their pastor, were on the right path and to remain in the right pasture, guarding their souls against heretic misleading and sinful temptations. He was compassionate and merciful to the people whom he shepherded as their pastor, just as Jesus were. At the same time, he was also a fierce fighter against heresies to protect the dogmatic purity and against sinful factors to guard his people from falling to defilement.

So, who is this French priest in the 19^th century?

He is Fr. John Maria Vianney, canonized as a Saint. So, he is St. John Maria Vianney.

Born in 1786, John Maria Vianney (Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney) grew up in the anti-Catholic social atmosphere, leading to the French Revolution in 1789. It was when many priests faithful to their vows were violently persecuted. However, as Napoleon Bonaparte seized the power through the 1799 coup d'état and the Concordat of 1801 with Pope Pius VII, the French social pendulum swung back in favor of the Church. And it was when John Maria Vianney was growing up. He spent his early childhood through rather clandestine worship until Napoleon re-established the Church in 1802.

During the Napoleon Bonaparte’s reign (1799-1814) and the Bourbon Restoration (1814-1830), the Church in France was in need of many priests to be fully restored, after years of persecution by radical socialists, culminated with the French Revolution. And this was when John Maria Vianney responded to his call, perhaps, hearing Jesus saying:

The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest  (Matthew 9:37-38).

There were lots to be done to restored damaged Church and bring people back to the Church, after years of anti-Catholic social attacks, as symbolized with Jesus’ words of “the harvest is abundant”. And, because so many priests were killed during by the revolutionary socialists, “the labors are few”, thus, in need of more priests.

Having followed his call to “labor” for the “harvest” by Jesus, John Maria Vianney made it through his vocational journey to the priest hood – though he failed in Latin class. At age 30, he was ordained as a priest, in 1815, the year Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo.  From the get-go of his priesthood, St. John Maria Vianney worked as diligently as a farmer during the harvest time as a parish priest, as reflected in the Gospel Reading (Mathew 9:35-10:1) for his feast. He celebrated Mass daily, tirelessly spent hours in providing counsel and in hearing confessions and administering the Sacraments. He also actively committed himself to pastoral care for the poor, establishing an orphanage and a free school. In his ministers, “the harvest is abundant”, indeed.

His pastoral ministries were fruitful as he tirelessly worked for his people. So, St. John Maria Vianney has been affectionately called as the Curé d’Ars (the pastor of Ars) for his dedicated and exemplary pastoral ministries as a parish priest in Ars-en-Dombes, a rural village in southern France.  

St. John Maria Vianney was always for his people, whom God entrusted him to shepherd as in persona Christi. He was for them and with them as their trusted, compassionate, and humble pastor. Because he did not want his time to be taken away from them, he even turned down ecclesiastical promotions. For him, priesthood was not about climbing up on the hierarchical ladder of the Church for his own honor but for the people whom God entrusted him to care for.

So, he remained with his people as their pastor, nourishing the faithful in Ars-en-Dombes, as Jesus did to those who came to him in Galilee and Judea. He also safeguarded them against heresies and other factors that could corrupt them, in the spirit of the Canon Law: Salus animarum suprema lex (Salvation of souls is the supreme law of the Church), serving as their “Good Shepherd” (John 10:1-11) in his priestly in personal Christi role. Reflected in the First Reading for his feast (Ezekiel 3:17-21), St. John Maria Vianney was an anointed guardian of his parish, as Ezekiel was called to serve as the watchman of the House of Israel. He was aware that he could not fail to safeguard souls of the faithful in his parish, as it is his pastoral liability.

So on August 4, we honor St. John Maria Vianney as an exemplary parish priest, whom all seminarians aspiring to serve as priests should strive to imitate.

As a parish priest, St. John Maria Vianne always put his people first. At the same time, he was very stern in fighting heresies so that his people would not be spiritually poisoned.

To those who are priests and aspired to serve as priests: Are you willing to minister as tirelessly as a farmer during the harvest time, from early in the morning to late in the evening, celebrating Mass daily, making pastoral visits, providing for those who are in need, hearing confessions, giving spiritual counsel, giving catechesis, and more, as exemplified by St. John Maria Vianney?

In these days, unfortunately, many priests are spending so many hours a day in rectories. They say, they have so many administrative works to do in their offices. The current state of the Church has made them rather “busy businessmen” than parish priests ministering fruitfully like farmers during the harvest time. They complain that they do not have enough time to be with their parishioners – to be pastoral to them, as they want.

Being a priest means being willing to accept self-sacrifice without being burned with stress.

There is no evidence that St. John Maria Vianney suffered from “compassion fatigue”. It was because he was like Jesus, whom he represented in his priesthood, working as diligently as a farmer during the harvest time, without having fatigue plague his ministries. It was because St. John Maria Vianney was a model priest, always in touch with the source of life, Christ, as he was so with the Father, in his ministries to his people – nourishing them as Christ did and guarding the house of the faithful as Ezekiel guarded the House of Israel.

May St. John Maria Vianney continue to watch over the Church and inspire young men of mature faith to serve as priests, to take care of abundant pastoral harvest.