Every August 2, the Church celebrates San Pedro Julián Eymard, Apostle of the Eucharist and founder of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, Male Religious Institute of Pontifical Law whose members are dedicated to promoting the Eucharistic Adoration and call themselves “sacramentines”.
Spiritual itinerary
Receive the main news of ACI Press by WhatsApp and Telegram
It is increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social networks. Subscribe to our free channels today:
Pedro Julián was born in La Mure, Grenoble (France), in 1811. The poverty of his family forced him to work from a young age next to his father. At age 12, Pedro Julián made first communion, after which he would show a growing interest in consecrated life. Unfortunately, his father opposed a possible religious vocation and wanted him to remain working with him. Pay for the formation of a priest child was out of reach.
Pedro Julián agreed to stay at home and fulfill his father’s desire, although not for a long time. Thanks to the help of a friend priest, he got enough money to study.
In classrooms he showed a taste for the different subjects, especially for Latin. Unfortunately it would be within this initial period that his mother would die. Then, with the authorization of his father, he manages to enter the house of the Oblate parents in Marseille to follow his training. In 1828 he entered the seminar and is ordained a priest at age 23, in 1834. At that time, he had already been completely orphan: his father had died a few years before.
In 1839, with the permission of his bishop, the now P. Eymard entered the Marist Congregation, where he would become a member of full law, making the votes of poverty, obedience and chastity.
Be in the presence of Christ, that must be the center
In the following years, Eymard would be convinced that the center of all spiritual life must be devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. Up to this conclusion moved by the abandonment in which many secular priests and much of the laity were, because of the carelessness of devotion to sacramented Christ.
With that conviction, Fr. Eymard decided to retire from the company of Mary and found the congregation of priests worshipers of the Blessed Sacrament, with the purpose of promoting a priestly lifestyle focused on the Eucharist. The Foundation took place in 1851 and the papal approval would arrive in 1863, granted by Pio IX.
Fr. Eymard would then found the servants of the Blessed Sacrament (the female branch of the congregation) and the priestly Eucharistic League. His project was as a goal that every apostolate and community service revolved around the Eucharist and Eucharistic adoration.
Ars’s priest friend
San Juan María Vianney, who personally came to know Fr. Eymard, once said: “The world opposes her work because she does not know her, but it is a company that will achieve great things for the glory of God. Priestly worship, what a wonder! … tell P. Eymard that I will ask for daily for her work.” The Holy Cure of Ars used to refer to him, without any repair, saying: “He is a saint.”
Apostle of the Eucharist
After a period of deficiencies and difficulties for him and for his young community, Fr. Eymard, San Pedro Julián, left for the father’s house on August 1, 1868 in La Mure, the place where he was born. He was 57 years old.
He was canonized in 1962 by Pope San Juan XXIII, within the framework of the first session of the Second Vatican Council. On that occasion he was presented to the Universal Church as “the apostle of the Eucharist.”
More information in the following link:
Central writing
The Catholic Agency for Information – ACI PRESS, is part of the news agencies of the ACI group, one of the greatest generators of Catholic news content in five languages and belonging since June 2014 to the family of Ewtn Global Catholic Network, the largest television Catholic chain in the world, founded in 1981 by the Angélica mother in Irondale, Alabama (United States), and that reaches more than 85 million homes in 110 countries and 16 territories.