Feast: August 9 · Patron of parish priests
John Vianney struggled so badly with Latin that he nearly failed out of the seminary, andhis superiors ordained him only because of his evident goodness. In 1818 he was sent toArs, a small and spiritually careless French village, as its parish priest. There, throughprayer, fasting, preaching and above all the confessional, he transformed the whole town,and in time much of France.
By the end of his life, pilgrims were arriving by the tens of thousands each year, and theCuré of Ars spent up to sixteen hours a day hearing confessions, reading souls withsupernatural insight. He endured years of harassment from the devil and lived on almostnothing. He died in 1859, was canonized in 1925, and in 1929 Pope Pius XI made him patronof all parish priests. He once said that the priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus.Please pray for our own priests through his intercession.