The Pope remembers the Curé of Ars and invites us to pray for priests

Amedeo Lomonaco – Vatican City

“Today, in memory of Saint Jean-Marie Vianney, I invite you to pray in a special way for your parish priests and for all priests. Inspired by the example of the Saint Curé of Ars, they can offer their lives to the mission of preaching the Gospel of Salvation “. It was the exhortation of Pope Francis in general audience, after catechesis, in his greeting to the Portuguese-speaking and French-speaking faithful, to whom he did not fail to designate Saint John as “a witness of love, mercy and solidarity. . “

A life in the service of the people of God

Nicknamed “the priest of Ars”, Jean-Marie Vianney was born on May 8, 1786 in Dardilly, near Lyon. He was ordained a priest at the age of 29 and in 1818 he was sent to Ars, a small town in south-eastern France, inhabited by 230 people. He devoted all his energy to serving the faithful. Always ready to listen and forgive, he spent up to 16 hours a day in the confessional. Every day, crowds of penitents from all over France confessed with him. Ars is renamed “the great hospital of souls”. He watched and fasted to help atone for the sins of the faithful. “I will tell you,” he said to a brother, “what is my recipe”: I do a little penance for sinners and do the rest for them. He died on August 4, 1859, at the age of 73. His remains are in Ars, in the sanctuary dedicated to him. He was beatified in 1905 by Pius X, and canonized in 1925 by Pius XI.

A model for all priests

In the letter written on August 4, 2019, on the occasion of the 160th anniversary of the death of Saint John-Marie Vianney, the Pope expresses his encouragement and his closeness to his “brother priests who, without making noise, leave everything to s ‘to hire. the daily life of their communities ”; those who work in the “trenches”; to those who every day “show their faces” without giving themselves as much importance, “so that the People of God may be cared for and accompanied”. A distinctive feature of the life of Saint John Mary Vianney is prayer. In the Angelus of August 4, 2019, Francis also recalls that the Holy Curé of Ars is a “model of goodness and charity for all priests”. “May the testimony of this humble parish priest, totally devoted to his people, help to rediscover the beauty and importance of the ministerial priesthood in contemporary society.