Dates

• Existence: 1786 May 8 - 1859 August 4

Biographical note

Born at Dardilly, near Lyons, in 1786, he was a farmhand and already nineteen when he began his studies for the priesthood, which he completed only with considerable difficulty. He was, however, ordained in 1815 and three years after was appointed parish priest of Ars, a small village near Lyons, where he worked for the rest of his life. His chief work was the direction of souls: his confessional was thronged with all classes of persons, who flocked to him from far and wide, and during the last ten years of his life he spent in it sixteen to eighteen hours a day. He was gifted with discernment of spirits, prophecy and hidden knowledge, and was often tormented by evil spirits. Canonized in 1925 and declared patron saint of parish priests.

(paraphrased from The Book of Saints : A Dictionary of Persons Canonized or Beatified by the Catholic Church. 5th edition. New York: Crowell, 1966.)

Alternate names

John Baptist Vianney, Curé of Ars, John Vianney, Jean-Marie Vianney

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