John and the French Revolution
August 4 - Memorial of the Holy Curé of Ars
In France at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, the French Revolution had replaced God with the Goddess of Reason, the worship of the divine sacraments with the worship of Mother Earth. The streets of France were bloodied by hatred and terror.
At this dramatic moment in French history, God chose a simple young man, but one with a pure heart and full of zeal for God and the salvation of souls, to restore peace to the hearts of his children and embrace them in his merciful embrace.
John Mary Vianney, born in Dardilly, Lyon on May 8, 1786, became a priest in 1815 at the age of 30. He was sent by the Bishop to the Chaplaincy of Ars, a small village of 230 inhabitants, 35 kilometers from Lyon. When the Holy Curé arrived, the village was isolated and abandoned, and the inhabitants seemed "wild by nature." At his death on August 4, 1859, Ars had long been a destination for pilgrimages from all over Europe, a center of spirituality and the propagation of the Catholic faith…