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Updated: May 15, 2025
But, after closely observing the holy priest for one or two days, they lost all desire to compare him to a "town crier," and it was not long before they joined the crowds waiting for confession. With still another class it required a direct call of grace. Like St. Vincent Ferrer, Father Vianney had received from God the gift of being able to read clearly into the conscience of a sinner.
Despite the fact that they were not rich they practiced the greatest hospitality toward the poor and needy. With joyful wonder the youthful Jean beheld, evening after evening, a number of poor and needy wayfarers entertained at the family meal. Not infrequently the elder Vianney would bestow his own share upon some belated arrival.
Being accosted on his way home by a poor man whose feet were bare and sore, he divested himself of his own shoes and stockings, gave them to the mendicant, and returned home barefoot. Vianney was wont to declare jestingly that he had never left his overcoat anywhere.
As a rule Father Vianney heard confessions daily for sixteen and even eighteen hours and this almost superhuman practice continued for a period of thirty years. At seven or eight o'clock in the morning the cure said Mass and gave Holy Communion. After Mass he blessed the articles of devotion presented to him at the altar rail, as well as the little children that were brought to him.
Divine Providence, however, had much more than this in store for the newly consecrated priest, for he was to become a model, whom Holy Church was one day to present to the entire clergy of the Catholic world for imitation. The Blessed Vianney, in his humility, constantly realized and lamented his imperfections.
Then Father Vianney no longer doubted that it was Satan that was persecuting him and this conviction removed all sentiments of fear from his soul, for he knew well how to combat the enemy of God. These violent satanic assaults were kept up against Father Vianney for the space of thirty-five years.
A certain man, thirty-two; years of age, went to Ars in company with a friend, intending to ridicule Father Vianney. The man had with him his hunting dog, having planned to enjoy the pleasures of the chase in the neighboring fields. At the very moment when the cure was passing across the village square and through the kneeling multitudes, the two friends appeared on the scene.
To such an extent had these ideas progressed that some persons attributed the furrows with which penitential works had seamed the brow of the humble priest to an immoral mode living. With touching patience and resignation Father Vianney bore those years of bitterness. His zeal never relaxed for a day, and the interior agony which he suffered was not observable in any of his pastoral duties.
In August, of the year 1815, he was raised to the dignity of the priesthood by the bishop of Grenoble, representing the archbishop of Lyons, who was at that time in Rome. Vianney was then twenty-nine years old. The bishop had expressed the hope that the newly ordained would prove to be an efficient laborer in the Master's vineyard.
At first, indeed, Father Vianney was greatly distressed when circumstances necessitated his preaching without special preparation; yet, as in this he saw only the will of God, he abandoned himself with complete resignation to the Divine plans, and thus became, although he had no suspicion of it himself, a most eloquent apostle.
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