He
was the son of a peasant farmer, and a slow and unpromising candidate
for the priesthood: he was eventually ordained on account of his
devoutness rather than any achievement or promise.
In 1818 he was sent to be the parish priest of
Ars-en-Dombes, an isolated village some distance from Lyon, and remained
there for the rest of his life because his parishioners would not let
him leave. He was a noted preacher, and a celebrated confessor: such was
his fame, and his reputation for insight into his penitents’ souls and
their futures, that he had to spend up to eighteen hours a day in the
confessional, so great was the demand. The tens of thousands of people
who came to visit this obscure parish priest turned Ars into a place of
pilgrimage.
The French State recognised his eminence by awarding
him the medal of the Légion d’Honneur in 1848, and he sold it and gave
the money to the poor.
universalis.com
No comments:
Post a Comment