Paperback: From my seminary years, I had been impressed by the figure of the Curé d'Ars, especially after reading his biography by Monsignor Trochu. St John Marie Vianney astonishes us because in him we can see the power of grace working through human limitations. - Pope John Paul II, Gift and Mystery
Around 1830, the village of Ars began attracting huge crowds of visitors each day. Why did thousands of pilgrims come daily to this small village? The pilgrims had no other purpose than to meet its parish priest and especially to have him hear their confession. For this, they waited for hours, sometimes all night!
His exceptional holiness and numerous miracles irresistibly attracted men and women of all ages and walks of life in search of the truth. This priest was Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney (1786-1859). He lived in extreme austerity and he made his village a fervent and exemplary community. Long before his death in 1859, he was the most famous priest in France. He is now considered the Patron and exemplar of priests worldwide.
This classic and comprehensive biography written by Abbé François Trochu reveals how Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney overcame numerous obstacles to becoming a priest. He exercised intense simplicity, humility and pastoral zeal to help him transform a miserable village disaffected with religion into a town attracting thousands of pilgrims a year.
Canonized in 1925 by Pope Pius XI, during the 150th anniversary of his death in 2009, The Year of the Priest was launched by Pope Benedict XVI to renew priestly sanctity all over the world.
The Curé d'Ars (1927, 2013) is translated from the French by Dom Ernest Graf OSB of St Mary's Abbey, Buckfast in Devon.
About the author: Abbé François Trochu is the author of the biographies The Curé d'Ars: St Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney and St Bernadette Soubirous. His work on the Curé d'Ars was originally published in 1927 by Burns, Oates and Washbourne. In this definitive biography, Abbé Trochu compiled a great number of extraordinary facts about the saint, based on his life and vocation, according to the Acts of the Process of Canonisation and numerous hitherto unpublished documents. It presents a vivid and accurate picture of one of the most beloved saints of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
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