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THE BULLETIN, September 19, 1959—PAGE 3-B 'THE CURE D'ARS' DIED HERE—This is the bed in which St. John-Mary Vianney, “the Cure d’Ars” died, August 4, 1859, at the age of 73. Canonized in 1925 by Pope Pius XI, he is hailed as the world-wide patron of parish priests. Photo courtesy P. J. Kenedy & Sons, New York, from the centennial volume “The Cure D’Ars — A Pictorial Biography.”—(NC Photos). Willi each depositor insured to $10,000.00 by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ON SAVINGS ACCOUNTS AND TIME CERTIFICATES OF DEPOSIT, WE PAY INTEREST QUARTERLY, Compounded Quarterly NOTE:—Inasmuch as Corporations, Associations, Partnerships, etc., operating for profit, cannot be paid interest on savings accounts, our Time Cer tificates of Deposits make an aiiractive investment for reserve funds. They are automatically renewable and checks for interest are mailed quarterly.—(Write for folder). CHATHAH 10 E. BRYAN STREET — SAVANNAH, GEORGIA "SAFE SINCE 1885" (N. C. W. C. NEWS SERVICE) During 1959 the Church is observing the centenary of the death of St. John Vianney. A number of portraits — some seemingly contradictory — could be painted of him: farm boy, deserter from Napoleon’s army, laggard student, parish priest, renowned confessor, astounding mystic. But underlying every stage of his career was a unify ing element — a burning love of God and a zeal for souls which made his life a spiritual masterpiece. John Vianney was born on May 8, 1786, at Dardilly, near Lyons, France. Three years later the French Revolution was raging, with all its anti-clerical excesses. Much of his early con tact with religion came during Masses offered in secret by fugi tive priests. It was during these years, while learning to be a shepherd boy on his father’s farm, that he first resolved to become a priest. At the age of 18 he told his father of his decision. The good man was less than enthusiastic: he could not afford to educate his son, and besides he needed him on the farm. But the youth persisted, and at the age of 20 he was allowed to be gin studies at an informal school conducted in the nearby village of Ecully by Abbe Bailey. Young John had little natural aptitude as a student. He found Latin especially difficult. At one point, he was almost ready to despair of his studies. But in the summer of 1806 he made a pilgrimage — on foot and begging his food — to the shrine of St. John Francis Regis. He returned to Ecully no better as a student, but resolved not to give up. Then fate intervened. Napo leon’s armies required him. John Vianney was ordered to report for service in Spain. Dutifully, the young man left to join his unit. On the road he met a soldier. The man told him to follow. He did— and soon found himself among a group of deserters. John Vianney quickly handed himself over to the mayor of the nearest village, Les Noes, But the mayor did not react as expected. Perhaps it was be cause he was a human being, perhaps because the young re cruit—only five feet, two inches tall — hardly looked like a sol dier. At any rate, he advised him to remain a deserter, and found him a hiding place in the home of his own cousin. There he stayed for 14 months, until Napoleon proclaimed an amnesty for deserters. Then John Vianney returned home and to his studies. In 1811 he received the ton- sure and at the end of the fol lowing year entered the semi nary. His career was hardly distinguished. He failed his examinations and could not be accepted for ordination. Only further coaching, furth er testing and intervention by friends — who called him “the unlearned but the most devout seminarian in Lyons” —■ enabled him to be raised to the priest hood on August 12, 1815. His .first assignment was as ★ Two Belk-Griffiths ■ . . 217 W. Broughton Cross Roads Shopping Center. BUMu..... ^r r SAVANNAH'S TWO COMPLETE , f / DEPARTMENT STORES % We Invite Your Charge Account MU CONDITIONED FOi YOUR COMFORT Peter Schuster, Credit tower THE CURE P' ARS BUILD WITH BRIGHT BROOKS BETTER LUMBER" vicar to his old friend and teacher, Abbe Bailey. Soon the competition in austerity which the two holy men waged with each other became the talk of the town. When, in 1817, Abbe Bailey died, it was a saddened young priest who left Ecully to take up his new assignment as cure of the church in Ars-en-Dombes, a remote village of 230 people. Ars, at the time of John Vian- ncy’s arrival, has been described as a place of “little definite im morality and malicious wicked ness, but little true religion and love of God.” The new cure set out to change all that. 'His principal technique was good example. For his first six years in Ars, he lived on little more than potatoes, boiled in a pot at the beginning of the week and parceled out sparingly for the next seven days. At the same time he began a regular catechism class for chil dren of the village, and a series of remarkable sermons for their elders. John Vianney was rigorous and uncompromising in his spirituality. He waged unrelent ing war against drunkenness. He campaigned against dancing and swearing. It was at this time he began to win a double reputation — for sanctity and eccentricity. Some detractors, both clerical and lay, called him a fanatic. But the people of Ars simply said: “Our cure is a saint and we must, obey him. We are no better than other people, but we live close to a saint.” At this time, too, began a strange series of phenomena which continued through the rest of his life, and which the little priest attributed calmly to the devil. There were strange noises and voices in his rectory, personal violence and, on one occasion, the burning of the cure’s bed. An acquaintance, commenting on these incidents, once said to him: “You must get very frightened.” “One gets used to everything, my friend,” John Vianney re plied simply. The humble cure began to win fame beyond his village as a confessor of remarkable insight and holiness. As early as 1827 people from outside Ars were seeking his advice. Beginning in ST. JOHN MARIE VIANNEY (NC Photos) 1830, the daily visitors to his church averaged at least 300. At Lyons the railway opened a special booking office selling eight-day round trip tickets to Ars. Eight-day tickets — for the crowds who flocked to his con fessional made it impossible for anyone to hope to see him in less time than that. And John Vianney was equal to the de mands. In winter he spent not less than 11 or 12 hours daily in the confessional; in summer, up to 16 hours. Clearly, the cure’s skill in the confessional was something more than merely natural. On one occasion he told a friend: “I once said to a certain woman, ‘So it is you who have left your husband in hospital and refuse to join him.’ ‘How do you know that?’ she asked, ‘I’ve not men tioned it to a soul.’ I was more surprised than she was. I imagined that she had already told me the whole story.” At other times John Vianney was able to correct his penitents in the number of their sins or the length of time since their last confession, or to remind them of sins they had forgotten to mention. Once a noblewoman came to his church, worried because her 18-year-old son was planning to marry a 15-year-old girl. The cure, who had never met her, left his confessional, came up to her and whispered, “Let them WHERE CURE D'ARS PREACHED—This pulpit was used by St. John Vianney, Cure of Ars in the old parish church where the 19th century French parish priest preached. This is one of some 200 photographs in a new pictorial biography of the saint, published by P. J. Kenedy & Sons, New York.—(NC Photos). marry. They will be very hap py.” And similar incidents of seemingly, inexplicable knowl edge were repeated again and again. The priest also won a reputa tion for working miraclous cures — though all of these he attributed to the intercession of his beloved St. Philomena. But the most striking miracle of ail, as the schoolmaster of Ars ex plained it, was none of these. “The most difficult, extraordin ary and amazing work that the cure did was his own life,” the man said. On July 18, 1859, the Cure fell ill. Pie was 73 years old, and he knew the end was at hand. When he received the last sacraments, he said quietly: “It is sad to receive Holy Com munion for the last time.” He died August 4, 1859. Sixty-six years later, in 1925, John Mary Vianney, the humble cure of Ars, was proclaimed a saint by Pope Pius XI. Henry Sireei and A. C. L. 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