St John Eudes

John Eudes was born in Normandy in 1601 and entered the French Oratory, where masters such as Berulle and Condren deepened in him a lasting sense of the dignity of the priesthood. That concern shaped almost everything that followed. He first became known for practical charity. During outbreaks of plague in Normandy he ministered tirelessly to the sick and dying, and to avoid infecting his brethren he even lodged apart in a large cask set out in a field. He then spent years as one of the great mission preachers of seventeenth-century France, preaching to ordinary people, hearing confessions for long hours, and calling both clergy and laity to serious conversion. He also gave himself to the rescue and protection of women trying to leave lives of disorder behind them, helping works of mercy that would outlast him. Over time he became convinced that the Church could not be deeply renewed unless priests themselves were formed more carefully in doctrine, prayer, and holiness.

That conviction led him, after real strain and opposition, to leave the Oratory and found the Congregation of Jesus and Mary for seminaries and the sanctification of the clergy. The work was costly, but he persisted, establishing seminaries and forming priests with unusual seriousness. His devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary grew out of the same pastoral vision. For him this devotion was not sentimentality, but a way of drawing Christian life and priestly life back to their source in the love of Christ and the compassion of His Mother. Even when age and labour wore him down, he kept preaching, writing, directing souls, and completing works such as The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God. He remains a missionary, plague-servant, seminary founder, and priestly reformer whose devotion had practical backbone and real apostolic force.