St. John Eudes

SAINT JOHN EUDES—APOSTLE OF THE HEART OF MARY

Saint John Eudes was born in Normandy, and was educated by the Jesuits. He was Ordained a priest, and he founded the Congregation of the Priests of Jesus and Mary, then called Eudists, and also the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity. As preacher, writer, and founder he promoted public devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Saint John Eudes who died in 1680 A.D. , Pray for us!

Saint John Eudes spread the devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and this was inspiration from Our Lady by Our Lord's request to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque. He certainly was honored and responsible for getting the church to accept liturgical offices in Its honor. The goal of these apparitions to Saint Margaret Mary was to inaugurate devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus...NOW.

As it was Saint Gertrude who received a heavenly message, from Saint John the Evangelist, in the 14th century that the Sacred Hearts Devotion was to be embellished at a later time (in the 17th century), when the world will need to be reminded of His Infinite Love. One of its main characteristics was to move tepid Catholics out of their their tepidity to light the love of God in souls that had cooled; to make fervent souls advance rapidly to great holiness. St. Margaret Mary received that devotion as a great treasure, but she was a Visitation religious who could not leave her convent. Her mission was to record the devotion, practice it, and become a saint. Her canonization was a confirmation and approval of the Church for that devotion.

St. Margaret Mary wrote to King Louis XVI of France telling him to consecrate France to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and place the Sacred Heart on the flag of France. The King refused to do both things. The result: the royal power deteriorated in France. When Louis XVI was a prisoner in the Temple in 1792, he finally made that consecration, but he did it without the adhesion of the French people. He still had the de jure power to make the consecration, but no longer a de facto power. It was already too late. St. Margaret Mary also wrote to missionary priests to make them aware of the devotion, and it began to spread in pious circles. One of those who heard about it was St. John Eudes, who soon after embarked on his great work as the apostle of the devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and apparently would sign a covenant with the Blessed Mother in his own blood.

But what exactly is this devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary? Authoring The Admirable Heart of Mary, St. John Eudes humbly exclaimed his unworthiness, as a sinner, to be the instrument of God to offer the desires of Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary in these holy words of contemplation: "The word 'heart', expresses the free 'I' of the superior and rational part of the soul, the queen of the other faculties, the root of good and evil, and the mother of virtue and of vice.

Our Lord refers to this heart when He says: "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth that which is evil. Here, "a good heart" means the righteous will of the just man, from which all kinds of good can come; and "an evil heart" means the bad will of the wicked, which is a source of all kinds of evil.

We must also understand by the word "heart" that highest part of the soul which theologians call the point of the spirit. It is the seat of contemplation, which consists in turning the mind directly toward God and viewing Him in all simplicity, without discursive reasoning or multiplicity of thoughts. The Fathers of the Church apply to this power of the soul those words which the Holy Ghost puts in the mouth of the Blessed Virgin Mary: "I sleep, and my heart watcheth."   According to St. Bernardine of Siena and several other writers, sleep and rest of the body did not prevent Mary's holy Heart, that is, the highest part of her mind, from being always united to God in sublime contemplation.

At times "heart" stands for the whole interior life of man; I mean, of course, the spiritual life, as indicated by these words spoken by the Son of God to the faithful soul: "Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm,"  that is, stamp the image of my interior and exterior life in your interior and exterior life, in your soul and in your body, by a perfect imitation of Me.

The word "heart" can also signify the Holy Spirit, the veritable Heart of the Father and the Son, Whom They desire to give us for our own mind and heart. "And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you." The Son of God is called the Heart of the Eternal Father in Sacred Scripture, and it is of this heart that the Father speaks to His Spouse, the Blessed Virgin, when He says to her: "Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse," or according to the Septuagint: "Thou hast ravished my heart." And the Son of God Himself is called in Scripture "The breath of our mouth," that is, the soul of our soul and our hearts very heart.

All these hearts are to be found in Mary, the Mother of Fair Love, and they form in her one single heart, because all the faculties of the superior and the inferior part of her soul were always harmoniously united. Moreover, Jesus, who is the heart of His Father, and the Holy Ghost, who is the heart of the Father and the Son, were given to Mary to be the soul of her soul and the heart of her heart."

To understand more clearly what is meant by the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we must recall that, just as we adore in the Most Holy Trinity and in the Incarnate Word three hearts which form but one heart, so also do we honor in the Mother of God three hearts united in one.

The first heart of Mary, the Mother of God, is the heart of flesh enclosed in her virginal breast. Although this heart is corporeal, it is nevertheless completely spiritualized by the spirit of grace and the spirit of God which fill it.

The second heart is her spiritual heart, made God-like, not indeed by the hypostatic union as in the Incarnate Word, but by a superlative participation in the divine perfections. This heart is referred to by the words of the Holy Ghost: "All the glory of the king's daughter is within," that is, has its origin in her heart and her inmost soul.

The third heart of Mary is divine and is truly God Himself, for it is none other than the love of God. This is the heart of which she says: "I sleep, and my heart watcheth," which means according to the interpretation of several holy Doctors: "While I grant necessary rest to my body, my Son Jesus, who is my Heart and whom I love like my own heart, is always watching over me and for me."

These three hearts of the Mother of God constitute a single Heart, through the holiest and most intimate union that ever was and will be, next to the hypostatic union. Of these three hearts, or rather, of this single Heart, the Holy Ghost has said twice: "Mary kept all these words, Pondering
them in her heart."   "Cor unum et anima una.", that is, "One heart and one soul."

His circle of God’s concerns did not stop here; He resigned from the Oratorians in 1643 and founded the Congregation of Jesus and Mary (the Eudists) at Caen, composed of secular priests not bound by vows but dedicated to upgrading the clergy by establishing effective seminaries and to preaching missions.

His foundation was opposed by the Oratorians and the Jansenists, and he was unable to obtain Papal approval for it, but in 1650, the Bishop of Coutances invited him to establish a seminary in that diocese. St. John Eudes founded seminaries at Lisieux in 1653 and Rouen in 1659 and was unsuccessful in another attempt to secure Papal approval of his congregation.

John continued giving missions and established new seminaries at Evreux in 1666 and Rennes in 1670. For long years, he preached to large crowds in churches, or the open fields, or in the courts of nobles and the King. His sermons were known for his strong condemnation of the vices of his audience and their great eloquence supported by his eminent sanctity.

He became interested in helping prostitutes who sought to escape their lives. With the influence of Madeleine Lamy, who had cared for several of the women, he then in, 1641, founded the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge, to provide a refuge for prostitutes who wished to do penance. The same year the sisters at his refuge in Caen left the Visitandines, but in 1666 the Refuge sisters received Pope Alexander III’s approval as an institute to reclaim and care for penitent wayward women.

Excerpts from Papal Documents
Concerning St. John Eudes and the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus:

Auctor cultus lilurgici sacrorum Cordium. "The institutor of the lilurgical worship of the Sacred Hearts." (Pope Leo XIII in the Decree on the Heroism of the Virtues of John Eudes, January 6. 1903).

"But his services to the Church received a vast increase when, burning with a singular love for the most holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary, he was the first to think, not without some divine inspiration, of offering to them liturgical worship. Of this sweet devotion of piety, therefore, he is to be considered the Father, since, from the beginning of his congregation of priests, he provided that the feasts of those Sacred Hearts should be celebrated among them; the Doctor also, for he composed special offices and Masses in their honor; and finally the Apostle, for he strove, with all his might, to spread everywhere this salutary devotion." (Pope St. Pius X in the Decree of Beatification, December 13, 1908).

The zeal of John Eudes reached its peak when, in 1670, after a mission at Rennes and the foundation of a seminary in that town, he was able there to celebrate, for the first time, the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with the approval of the Ordinary, with which a great number of prelates hastened to concur. Two years later, the saintly founder explicitly ordained that the Feast be celebrated, in all the houses of his congregation, as the patronal feast. Pius X, Our Predecessor of illustrious memory, sanctioned these two feasts, celebrated by the Eudistic family, and authorized as the day of the solemnity, February 8, for the Feast of the Holy Heart of Mary, and October 20, for the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This endeavor to spread the devotion to the Sacred Hearts, of which he is the Father, the Doctor and the Apostle, stirred up the hatred of the Jansenists, who made him suffer many trials; his invincible courage supported them for the love of God and the salvation of souls. (Pope Pius XI in the Decree of Canonization, May 31, 1925)

"Lastly, in more recent centuries, especially at the time when heretics, by propagating false piety, were striving to turn the faithful away from the Blessed Eucharist, the public devotion to the Sacred Heart saw its beginnings. This was due, primarily, to the work of St. John, who rightly deserves to be called the institutor of the liturgical worship of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary" (Office for the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Matins, Second Nocturn, Lesson 4)

Saint John Eudes was born at Ri, Normandy, France, November 14, 1601. Nothing is by chance, only by the Mind of God in cooperation with His grace. So why is the place, Normandy, so peculiar to the birthplace of St. John Eudes? By the debut of St. Joan of Arc, this established the last attempt of the English to dominate Normandy, restored the "had been" converted catholicity to the country of France. At this time of St. John Eudes, catholicity was greatly undermined by fellow Oratorians and Jansenists. God was and still is protecting His sinners with the prize of St. John Eudes.

An historian once wrote that his parents consecrated him to the Holy Virgin at his birth. Then at the early age of fourteen years St. John Eudes made a vow of chastity while he was just yet studying with the Jesuits of Caen. Why Caen? In the Middle Ages,Caen was greatly influenced, by St. Bernard and the Cistercians, in the exemplary veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He joined the Congregation of the Oratory of France in 1623 (22 years old). He studied at Paris and at Aubervilliers, was ordained a priest in 1625 (24 years old). St. John Eudes was very concerned about ministering the spiritual needs for the victims of the plagues which struck Normandy in 1625 and 1631. He worked then as a volunteer, caring for the spiritual and physical needs of the plagued victims. He spent the next decade preaching in Missions (over 110), building a reputation as an outstanding preacher and confessor and, also, for his opposition to Jansenism.

St. John Eudes entered the eternal life, August 19, 1680.   His natural ability, God-given, was formed by the Jesuits and Oratorians and his supernatural life came from God too.

He was zealous for the Kingdom of God and lavishley promoted devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and even today, in the 21st Century, he is linked with our devotion to Mary's Heart.

Saint John Eudes courageously resisted the heretical doctrines of the Jansenists, and preserved unalterable obedience towards the Chair of Peter. He was beatified by Pope St. Pius X and canonized by Pope Pius XI, a saint to be honored on the universal calendar of the Church with an Office and Mass.

Saint John Eudes who died in 1680; Pray for us!