Posted on 08/02/2002 3:48:12 PM PDT by Lady In Blue
A short biography of
by Rev. Robert Rousseau, SSS
Blessed Sacrament Years | More Info | SSS Mission | Quick Facts
1811-1839
Like all of us, Peter Julian Eymard [pronounced A-mard] was conditioned by his cultural background as well as by the sociopolitical milieu of his time. Life in France during the first half of the nineteenth century forms the backdrop against which to view the gradual unfolding of Peter Julian's life story. At the left is a photograph of the chapel for St. Peter Julian in his hometown of Le Mure, France.
Years earlier, the French Revolution of 1789 had radically altered the political, legal, social and religious structures of the country. As a teenager, the industrial revolution was changing the face of Europe. As a young man Eymard witnessed the dawning of the Age of Romanticism in art, music, and literature.
Peter Julian Eymard's road to the priesthood, as well as his life as a priest, was marked by the cross. In French society, there was a strong anticlericalism. In addition, the Eymard family was poor and Peter Julian's father was reluctant to give his blessing to his son's choice of career. His first attempt to attain priesthood ended because of serious illness. He tried again. On July 20, 1834, at 23 years of age, Eymard was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Grenoble.
In Eymard's day there was a religious movement called Jansenism. This movement focused on the gravity of human sinfulness and as a consequence stressed our unworthiness in the presence of a transcendent and perfect Divinity. In his early years as a seminarian and priest, Fr. Eymard was influenced by this reparation spirituality and he would struggle his whole life long to seek that inner perfection that would enable him to offer to God the gift of his entire self.
Perhaps it was the intensification of this growing spiritual struggle along with Fr. Eymard's desire to accomplish great things for God that led him to enter religious life. On August 20, 1839, Fr. Eymard became a member of the Marist Congregation by professing the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
1839-1856
All his life Peter Julian had an intense devotion to Mary, the Mother of God. He knew about the apparition of Our Lady at La Salette and enjoyed traveling to various Marian shrines [throughout France]. It was Eymard's apostolic work for the Society of Mary that put him in contact with the various currents of eucharistic piety that were flowing in the French Church.
Peter Julian, despite his poor physical health, was an unusually energetic and hardworking priest/religious. There was always an enduring desire to enter into contemplation; but with his work, travel, writing, preaching, spiritual direction, and responsibilities as Marist provincial [leader], there was neither the environment nor the time for this desire to be fulfilled very frequently.
What did Fr. Eymard do as a Marist? He was an outstanding organizer of lay societies, a zealous educator, a well-prepared preacher, and a bit of a prophet to his fellow priests and even to his religious superiors. Fr. Eymard was quite successful at preaching eucharistic devotions, such as the Forty Hours.
He asked his Superior General, Fr. Jean-Claude Colin, for permission to write a eucharistic rule for the Third Order of Mary of which, he, Peter Julian, was the director. Fr. Colin said no. Nevertheless, the idea for such a rule had already been written in the mind and heart of Fr. Eymard.
1856-1868
Founding the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament was not an easy task for Fr. Eymard. In fact, responding to God's Spirit as a founder involved him in relational conflicts, personally embarrassing situations, financial troubles, and physical exhaustion. His first hurdle was getting the founding of the Congregation approved by several local bishops. When this approval came, Fr. Eymard opened his first community on Rue d'Enfer in Paris.
The work of preparation for First Communion, especially among adults, was the aspect of the new eucharistic venture that had interested the archbishop of Paris and for which he had granted his approbation to the new group founded by Eymard. 
Other eucharistic communities and organizations were springing up throughout France but Archbishop Sibour rightly perceived that Eymard's intuition about the Eucharist was not limited merely to the worship of the holy sacrament but to actively reach out to those who were estranged from the church and to evangelize them. Father Eymard directed his ministry firstly to the children and young workers that made up a large segment of the labor force of Paris.
No sooner did he attract a few men to join him than he had to close this house and move to another location. This happened twice within the span of a few years. These early Eymardian communities were so poor that on several occasions a neighboring convent of sisters fed the fathers and brothers. Not being able to provide the basics of food and shelter did not help Fr. Eymard attract vocations.
As early as 1845, Eymard began to move away from a spirituality of reparation toward a spirituality of Christ-centered love. Three years prior to his death, Fr. Eymard made a long retreat in Rome. During this retreat, he was powerfully struck by the force of Christ's love within him - a love he felt taking over his whole person.
Anticipating the renewal of the Church brought about by Vatican Councils I and II, Eymard had a vision of priests, deacons, sisters, and lay people living lives of total dedication to the spiritual values that are celebrated and contemplated in the Eucharistic celebration and in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.
There are several biographies on Saint Peter Julian Eymard. Contact us for purchasing one of our most popular editions.
The study of Fr. Eymard by Fr. Donald Cave, sss entitled Eymard -1845-1851, published in English in 1969 is now available in French. Sr. Suzanne Aylwin, sss did this translation. Since only a limited number of copies were printed, we ask you to make your requests soon to the Secretary General at the Generalate in Rome. Email emman5384@aol.com for details. The cost per copy is $28.00 (US) or 46.000 Italian lire, plus postage.
 |
©1997-1999 Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament 5384 Wilson Mills Road Highland Heights, Ohio USA 44143-3092 (440) 442-6311 email: jtlanesss@blessedsacrament.com |
A short relfection on the
by Rev. Flavio Fumagalli, SSS
Ponteranica, Italy
SSS USA | SSS Mission | Quick Facts |
Eymard in His Own Words | Images of Eymard |
Images of Our Lady
AN IMPASSIONED APOSTLE OF THE EUCHARIST
Peter Julian Eymard, born at La Mure d'Isère (Grenoble) in France, on the 4th of February 1811, was baptized on the following day. After some family and vocational difficulties he eventually entered the diocesan seminary of Grenoble and, in 1834, was ordained a priest. In 1839, after a number of years of zealous pastoral ministry, he began an experience of religious life, entering the newly formed Congregation of the Marist Fathers, at Lyons. In a short time he gained the confidence of the Founder, Father Colin, who entrusted him with various important responsibilities .
At the same time his search for the will of God continued and led him to direct his life more and more towards the Eucharist for which he wanted to achieve something exceptional. A significant point in this search was reached when he underwent a spiritual experience at the sanctuary of Fourvière in Lyons in January, 1851. While praying there he was "profoundly moved" by the thought of the spiritual abandonment in which the secular priests were living, of the lack of formation for the laity, of the little devotion there was towards the Blessed Sacrament and of the sacrileges committed against the Eucharist. As a result he decided to form a Third Order of men dedicated to reparatory adoration. In the years that followed this would evolve into the definitive idea of establishing a religious Congregation entirely dedicated to the worship and apostolate of the Eucharist.
Not being able to carry out this work from within the Marist Fathers, Fr. Eymard left the Institute and came to Paris where, on the 13 May 1856, he founded the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament. The new religious Institute for men immediately received the approbation of Archbishop Sibour and, later, the blessing and the definitive approbation of Pope Pius IX (1863).
The work began under somewhat poor conditions in some premises situated in rue d'Enfer where, on the feast of the Epiphany in 1857, the foundation was officially inaugurated with solemn exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Again in Paris, in 1858, Father Eymard, with the help of Marguerite Guillot, founded the Congregation of the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament for women. In 1859 he opened a second community at Marseilles and placed in charge of it his first companion, Fr. Raymond De Cuers. A third foundation was established at Angers; then two others at Brussels and a formation house for the novitiate at Saint Maurice in the diocese of Versailles.
In the meantime, these years of "eucharistic" life saw Father Eymard involved in apostolic work, directed particularly towards the poor on the outskirts of Paris and towards priests in difficulty, in the work of first communion of adults and in many and various preaching commitments, centered particularly on the Eucharist. Furthermore, certain initiatives which began or developed after his death can be traced back to his eucharistic activity and spirituality, as for example, the Eucharistic Fraternity for the laity, the Association of Priest Adorers inspired by his concern for priests, International Eucharistic Congresses.
Worn out by his responsibilities as Founder and first Superior General, and marked by trials of every kind, Peter Julian died at the place where he was born at only 57 years of age on the lst of August, 1868. Beatified by Pius XI in 1925, he was proclaimed a Saint by John XXIII on the 9th of December 1962 at the conclusion of the first session of the Vatican Council II. Exactly 33 years later, on the 9th of December 1995, his feast day was inserted into the general Roman calendar and he is now presented to the whole Church as an "Apostle of the Eucharist".
The life and activity of Saint Peter Julian Eymard was entirely centered on the mystery of the Eucharist. Initially he approached it with the theology of his time, stressing particularly the "real presence". Nevertheless, he was able to gradually free himself from the devotional and "reparatory" aspect with which the eucharistic piety of his age was almost exclusively concerned and he arrived at the point of declaring the Eucharist to be the center of the life of the Church and society: "No other center than Jesus Eucharistic".
HIS VISION OF THE EUCHARIST
"The Blessed Sacrament has always been supreme", he wrote in his last personal retreat, thus characterising in an incisive way the form of Christian life he proposed. At the center stands the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Faithful to the post-tridentine theology, Eymard strongly emphasized the fact of this presence and its unique character: the Eucharist is the person of the Lord. This gave rise to the concise affirmations with which he expressed his faith: "The holy Eucharist is Jesus past, present and future... It is Jesus sacramentalized... Blessed is the soul that knows how to find Jesus in the divine Eucharist, and in Jesus Hostia everything else".
However, while emphasizing this "personalist" aspect, Father Eymard understood that this presence is the source of a dynamism, that it is related to a mission: "The grace of the apostolate: faith in Jesus. Jesus is there, therefore to Him, through Him, in Him". This faith in the Eucharist is nourished by meditation of the Word of God. Adoration, which he proposed as the particular type of prayer for his religious and, in a general way, for the faithful, is a means of allowing ourselves to become penetrated by the love of Christ. This prayer takes its inspiration from the Mass. For this reason he proposed to his religious that they pray according to the method of the "four ends of the eucharistic sacrifice" with the purpose of "actualizing, as it were, all the mysteries of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the most eminent worship of the Holy Eucharist", in attentiveness and docility to the Holy Spirit in order to "advance in recollection and in the virtue of holy love at the feet of the Lord" (cf. Constitutions, nos. 16-17). Therefore, far from being sufficient by itself, adoration tends towards sacramental communion.
THE NOURISHMENT OF DAILY LIFE
Eymard was a tireless promoter of frequent communion. In a beautiful text of 1863 he clearly expresses the central role of the Eucharist. "Convinced that the sacrifice of the holy Mass and communion in the body of the Lord are the living source and the aim of the whole of religion, each one has the duty to direct his piety, his virtue, his love, so that these may become means that will allow him to reach this goal: the worthy celebration and the faithful reception of these divine mysteries".
The saint broke with the practice of his time in which, under the pretext of respect for the Sacrament, many pastors prevented the faithful from approaching the eucharistic table. This is how he expressed himself in one of his letters: "Whoever wants to persevere, let him receive our Lord. He is the bread that will nourish your failing strength, that will sustain you. The Church wants it this way. She encourages daily communion: as a witness to this we have the Council of Trent. Someone will say that we need to be very prudent... But our reply to that would be: this nourishment, if taken at very long intervals, would have to be considered as an extraordinary food. Therefore, where is the ordinary nourishment that is meant to sustain me each and every day?".
Communion ought to become the pivot of the christian life: "Holy communion should be, above all, the aim of christian life ... Every pious exercise that does not have some relationship with holy communion is not directed towards its main goal". To receive the Eucharist in communion fruitfully is an action that changes one's life. "Our Lord comes into us sacramentally in order to live there spiritually". That is what he wrote in notes he made during the "great retreat of Rome" (1865). And, a few months before his death, he wrote: "He who does not receive Holy Communion has only a speculative knowledge. He knows only the terms, the words, the theories; he is ignorant of what they signify ... But he who receive Holy Communion, while previously he had just an idea of God, now he sees him, recognizes him at the holy Mass."
THE SOURCE OF A NEW WORLD
"A life that is purely contemplative can not be fully eucharistic: the fireplace has a flame". Thus wrote Eymard in 1861. An adorer, he was also an impassioned apostle of the Eucharist and he traced out ways of glorifying this mystery. The basic lines of his activity and teaching can be synthesized in the following way.
Above all, a renewal of christian life. It is not just a question of combating ignorance or indifference, but rather, and above all, of regenerating the christian life which becomes lost in the middle of a thousand practices and devotions that forget the essentials. In the preliminary draft of the "Directory" of the lay "Fraternity of the Blessed Sacrament" he lays down this principle: "Man is love like his divine prototype. Just as he is love, so he is life". And he explains that "every love has a beginning, a center, a goal". From this principle Eymard draws a whole pedagogy for the spiritual life: "In order that the devout soul become stronger and grow in the life of Jesus Christ, it is necessary first of all to nourish it with his divine truth and the goodness of his love, so that it may proceed from light to love, and from love to virtue".
The religious Institutes founded by him are called to live that spirit of love of which the Eucharist is the sacrament: "This Eucharistic love of Jesus should therefore be for all our religious the supreme law of their virtue, the object of their zeal and the distinctive mark of their holiness" he wrote in the Constitutions. In a word... a community shaped by love. In the same way he conceived the "Fraternity" as a group of lay people who unite adoration and apostolic commitment. For this reason he created centers not only close to his SSS communities but also in numerous parishes. At times he seems to have had thoughts of having some members who, for the purpose of leading a more eucharistic life, would form a family community in the world like a small religious cenacle.
The ideal that he confided to his spiritual children was "to set the four corners of the world on fire with eucharistic love". And he exhorted his religious, in the Constitutions, "that our Lord Jesus Christ be always adored in the Blessed Sacrament and glorified socially throughout the world". This is the meaning of the expression "the reign of the Eucharist" which appears frequently in the writings of Eymard. Thus, in an article entitled "The century of the Eucharist", written in 1864 for the review Le Très Saint Sacrement which he had founded, Peter Julian noted:
The great evil of our time is that people do not go to Jesus Christ as to their very Saviour and God. They abandon the only foundation, the only law, the only grace of salvation... What is to be done then? We must return to the fountain of life, and not just to the historical Jesus nor to the Jesus glorified in heaven, but rather to Jesus in the Eucharist. It is necessary to bring him out from the shadows so that he can once again take his place at the head of christian society... May the reign of the Eucharist increase... Adveniat regnum tuum.
In concluding, here is a text from St. Eymard which the liturgy of the Office of Readings offers us.
EUCHARIST: SACRAMENT OF LIFE
The Eucharist is the life of the people. The Eucharist gives them a centre of life. All can come together without the barriers of race or language in order to celebrate the feast days of the Church. It gives them a law of life, that of charity, of which it is the source; thus it forges between them a common bond, a Christian kinship. All eat the same bread, all are table companions of Jesus Christ who supernaturally creates among them a feeling of togetherness. Read the Acts of the Apostles. It states that the whole community of the first Christians, converted Jews and baptised pagans, belonging to different regions, "had but one heart and one soul" (Acts 4,32). Why? Because they were attentive to the teaching of the Apostles and faithful in sharing in the breaking of the bread (Acts 2,42).
Yes, the Eucharist is the life of souls and of societies, just as the sun is the life of the body and of the earth. Without the sun, the earth would be sterile, it is the sun which makes it fertile, renders it beautiful and rich; it is the sun which provides agility, strength and beauty to the body. In the face of these amazing effects, it is not astonishing that the pagans should have adored it as the god of the world. In actual fact, the sun obeys a supreme Sun, the divine Word, Jesus Christ, who illumines everyone coming into this world and who, through the Eucharist, Sacrament of life, acts in person in the very depths of souls in order to form Christian families and peoples. Oh how happy, a thousand times happy, is the faithful soul who has found this hidden treasure, who goes to drink at this fountain of living water, who eats often this Bread of eternal life!
Christian
society is also a family. The link between its members is Jesus Christ. He is the head of the household who has prepared the family table. He is the head, Jesus Christ, who celebrated christian togetherness at the Supper; he called his Apostles filioli, my little children, and he commanded them to love one another as he had loved them.
At the holy table we are all children who receive the same nourishment, and Saint Paul draws out the consequence of this, that is, that we form but one family, one same body, because we all share in the same bread, which is Jesus Christ (I Cor. 10, 16-17). Lastly, the Eucharist gives Christian society the strength to observe the law of honour, and to practice charity towards one's neighbour. Jesus Christ wants everyone to honour and love his brothers and sisters. For this reason he identifies himself with them: "What you do to the least of mine, you do to me" (Mt. 25, 40); and he gives himself to each one of them in Communion.
|
|
©Copyright 1998-1999, 2001 Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament 5384 Wilson Mills Road Highland Heights, Ohio USA 44143-3092 (440) 442-6311 email: jtlanesss@blessedsacrament.com |
I know I will enjoy this read! Thanks for posting it!
And thanks for the pics! He has goodness in his face!
Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Saint of the Day Ping List.
BTTT on the optional memorial of St. Julian Eymard 08-02-05.
Oops, I goofed on the name here.
BTTT on the optional memorial of St.Peter Julian Eymard 08-02-05.
|
August 2, 2005
 St. Peter Julian Eymard
(1811-1868)
Born in La Mure d'Isère in southeastern France, Peter Julian's faith journey drew him from being a priest in the Diocese of Grenoble (1834) to joining the Marists (1839) to founding the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (1856). In addition to those changes, Peter Julian coped with poverty, his father's initial opposition to Peter's vocation, serious illness, a Jansenistic striving for inner perfection and the difficulties of getting diocesan and later papal approval for his new religious community. His years as a Marist, including service as a provincial leader, saw the deepening of his eucharistic devotion, especially through his preaching of Forty Hours in many parishes.Inspired at first by the idea of reparation for indifference to the Eucharist, Peter Julian was eventually attracted to a more positive spirituality of Christ-centered love. Members of the men's community, which Peter founded, alternated between an active apostolic life and contemplating Jesus in the Eucharist. He and Marguerite Guillot founded the women's Congregation of the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament. Peter Julian Eymard was beatified in 1925 and canonized in 1962, one day after Vatican II's first session ended. Quote:
|
||||
**Worn out by his responsibilities as Founder and first Superior General, and marked by trials of every kind, Peter Julian died at the place where he was born at only 57 years of age on the lst of August, 1868.**
Our priest this morning at Mass said that St. Peter Julian Eymard died of exhaustion. I guess I missed it on my first reading.
BTTT on the Optional Memorial of St. Peter Julian Eymard, August 2, 2006!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
