Saint of August 19: San Juan Eudes. Catholic Santoral

Every August 19 the Church celebrates San Juan EudesFrench missionary priest, founder of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary – the so -called “eudists” – and the order of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge.

He is considered one of the great masters of the so -called French School of Spirituality that was developed during the seventeenth century. Pope Leo XIII considered him the “author of the liturgical cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Holy Heart of Mary.”

“Charity demands that you use its great gifts” (Card. Berulle)

Juan Eudes was born on November 14, 1601, in RI, Normandy (France), within a family of farmers. He was educated with the Jesuits in the port city of Caen already at age 21 joined the Oratory of Jesus (French Oratory). Two great spiritual teachers influenced his personal search: first, Pierre de Bérulle, founder of the oratory; and, second, the contemplative asceta Charles de Condren.

He was ordained a priest on December 20, 1625. Shortly after he contracted a disease that kept him in bed for months, until 1626.

In the course of 1625, a terrible Epidemic of plague and Juan had been unleashed in Normandy, the following year, already recovered, he offered to attend his compatriots. The Cardinal of Bérulle sent him to the Bishop of Séez with a letter of presentation, in which he said: “Charity demands that (Jean) use his great gifts at the service of the province in which he received life, grace and sacred orders, and that his diocese is the first to enjoy the fruits that can be expected of his ability, goodness, prudence, energy and life.”

Missionary in Normandy

For the next ten years, Juan dedicated himself to preaching and parochial missions, which began to organize in the way we know them today.

San Juan Eudes distinguished himself between the missionaries. As soon as he had just preached, he sat down to confess, since, according to him, “the preacher agitates the branches, but the confessor is the one who hunt the birds.”

Ombudsman for women’s dignity

Juan was also a real defender of women. He dedicated many of his pastoral efforts to host those who had fallen into the claws of prostitution and who wanted to change his life, or that they were simply in a situation of extreme vulnerability.

For some time, Fr. Eudes made them housed in the houses of pious families, until in 1671 he opened the first house shelter. Later, Eudes turned to the help of religious (visiting) to strengthen the attention and recovery of abandonment women.

Concern for the clergy

After very praying, reflecting and consulting, San Juan Eudes left the congregation of the Oratory in 1643. The experience taught him that the clergy needed to be reforming before the faithful and that the congregation could only get its end through the foundation of seminars. Then Juan decided to form an association of diocesan priests, whose main purpose would be the creation of seminars to form a much more careful parish clergy.

The new association was founded on the day of the announcement of 1643, in Caen, with the name of Congregation of Jesus and Mary. Its members, like those of the oratory, were diocesan priests who were not bound by any vote. The distinctive of the congregation was the heart of Jesus, in which Maria’s was mystically included.

In 1650, while he was on a mission, Fr. Eudes received the news that the bay of Bayeux had just approved the congregation of the sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the refuge, formed by the religious who attended the repentant women of Caen. In 1653, San Juan founded a seminar in Lisieux, which was followed by another in Rouen in 1659.

Then the saint addresses Rome to try to achieve the pontifical approval for his congregation, but failed. A year later, a Bull of Alejandro VII approves the congregation of the sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the refuge.

Master of spirituality

The following year, San Juan Eudes published a book entitled “Devotion to the Adorable Heart of Jesus.” The work included the one of a mass and a trade dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Already before, the saint had instituted for his congregation the feast of the Blessed Heart of Mary, held for the first time on August 31, 1670 in the chapel of the Rennes Seminary. Soon the observance of this party was extended to the nearby dioceses. Although San Juan Eudes was not the first to propagate devotion to the Sacred Heart, it was he “who introduced the cult (liturgical) of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Holy Heart of Mary” (Pope Leo XIII, 1903).

During the last years of his life, Fr. Eudes wrote his treatise on the Virgin: “The admirable heart of the Blessed Mother of God”, a work that concluded only one month before he died.

“Very glad I will spend and wear out” (2 Cor 12, 15)

His last mission was the one that preached in Sain-lo, in 1675, in the public place, with a glacial cold. The mission lasted nine weeks. The huge effort ended with his health and from then on he retired from active life.

His death occurred on August 19, 1680.

San Juan Eudes was canonized in 1925 and his party included in the western church calendar in 1928.

If you want to know a little more about San Juan Eudes, we recommend this article of the Catholic Encyclopedia: https://ec.aciprensa.com/wiki/San_Juan_Eudes.