Peter Julian Eymard (La Mure, 1811 - La Mure, 1868) was a nineteenth-century French priest, founder of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament and of the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, universally known as the "Apostle of the Eucharist".[1][2] Born into a cutler's family, then an Oblate novice, country pastor, and finally Marist, he devoted the second half of his life to one intuition: to restore Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament to the center of Christian life, and to gather around the tabernacle a people of adorers.[3][4]
His life was a slow ascent toward this grace of founding. Drawn very young to religious life, broken by illness, ordained a priest for the Diocese of Grenoble, he first believed he had found his place among the Marists. But on 21 January 1851, before Our Lady of Fourviere in Lyon, the conviction matured that would carry him until death: to found a society of men entirely devoted to perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.[5][6] On 13 May 1856, in Paris, with the agreement of Archbishop Sibour, he founded his congregation; on 6 January 1857, in a dilapidated building on rue d'Enfer, the Eucharist was exposed for the first time before his first two companions.[7][8]
A friend of the Cure of Ars, who blessed his project and prophesied that he "would have much to suffer", Eymard died exhausted in his native town on 1 August 1868.[9] Beatified by Pius XI in 1925, canonized by John XXIII on 9 December 1962 - the day after the close of the first session of the Second Vatican Council - on 9 December 1995, John Paul II had his memorial inscribed in the General Roman Calendar, with feast on 2 August, the decree presenting him as an "eminent apostle of the Eucharist".[10][11] His spirituality, centered on the Real Presence, adoration, and total abandonment to the divine will, makes him one of the great forerunners of the twentieth-century Eucharistic renewal.
A Child of the Dauphine (1811-1839)
Birth at La Mure (4 February 1811)
Peter Julian Eymard was born on 4 February 1811 at La Mure, a town on the Matheysine plateau south of Grenoble, in the Dauphine.[12][13] He was the last of the children - the tenth according to family tradition - of Julien Eymard, a modest artisan and merchant. His father was a cutler and oil presser, a trade linked to the walnut trees of the region; from 1817 he was also a member of the Confraternity of Penitents of the Blessed Sacrament at La Mure, a detail that says much about the Eucharistic climate in which the child grew up.[14]
The sometimes repeated claim that his father was a "blacksmith" comes from an erroneous English notice: the French sources agree that he was a cutler and oil merchant.[15]
Very early, the young Peter Julian showed a precocious attraction to the Eucharist. Tradition says that, as a child, he was found kneeling behind the high altar of the church, his head against the tabernacle, "to be closer to Jesus". His older sister Marianne, who was also his godmother, watched over his budding piety; years later he would write to her that the day of his baptism remained "the most beautiful day of [his] life".[16]
"It is such a beautiful day for me, the most beautiful day of my life: today I had the happiness of being baptized." - Peter Julian Eymard, letter to his sisters Marianne and Anne on the anniversary of his baptism[17]
A Thwarted Vocation: the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (1829)
The call to the priesthood first met with his father's opposition - he wanted to keep his son at the oil mill - and then with the fragility of Peter Julian's health. After his mother's death, Peter Julian taught himself Latin and, on 7 June 1829, entered the novitiate of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) in Marseille, at the house of Saint-Just.[18][19] He received the habit while continuing his studies, but excessive zeal and mortifications ruined his health.
Struck by a serious illness and judged lost by the doctors, he had to leave the novitiate after five months and return to La Mure.[20][21] Later he would recall this young man "lying in a bed, condemned to death by all the doctors" at the age of twenty, and would marvel at the providence that had left him alive.[22] This first breaking - a religious vocation interrupted by illness - would permanently mark the way he accompanied tested souls.
"Who would have said, at twenty, lying in a bed, condemned to death by all the doctors, that I would still live another fifteen years? [...] The good God has given me very great graces." - Peter Julian Eymard[23]
The Seminary of Grenoble and Ordination (1834)
Restored to health, he entered the major seminary of Grenoble in 1831 - the same year his father died. On 20 July 1834, at the age of twenty-three, he was ordained priest for the Diocese of Grenoble.[24][25] He celebrated his first Mass at the basilica of Notre-Dame de l'Osier, a Marian shrine of the Dauphine.
The Young Pastor: Chatte and Monteynard
As a diocesan priest, Eymard first served as vicar at Chatte, then became pastor of the parish of Monteynard (Mont-Saint-Eynard in some notices).[26][27] A zealous pastor and tireless preacher, he spent himself without counting the cost, restored the Eucharistic fervor of his parishioners, and already revealed what would become the dominant note of his whole life: devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. Yet he sensed that God was calling him beyond the country parish.
The Marist (1839-1856)
Entry into the Society of Mary
In 1839, Peter Julian left the diocesan clergy to enter the Society of Mary (the Marists), a congregation recently founded by Jean-Claude Colin.[28][29] He made his vows on 16 February 1840. His spiritual worth was quickly recognized: he became spiritual director of the Marist college at Belley, then provincial visitor, and exercised an intense ministry of preaching and spiritual direction.[30]
Director of the Third Order of Mary in Lyon
From 1845-1846, Eymard was appointed director of the Third Order of Mary in Lyon.[31] There he unfolded a genuine ministry of accompaniment: around him formed a group of tertiaries, mostly women, whom he formed through conferences on the interior life and directed by letter. His correspondence - more than 2,200 letters addressed to 251 recipients, including about 850 of pure spiritual direction - was born from this ministry and is today the principal source for his thought.[32]
In this Lyon setting, on 8 December 1846, he received into the Third Order of Mary a country pastor who would become one of its enthusiastic promoters: Jean-Marie Vianney, the Cure of Ars.[33]
The Grace of Fourviere (21 January 1851)
The decisive turning point came on 21 January 1851. On pilgrimage to the shrine of Notre-Dame de Fourviere in Lyon, Eymard made to Mary the promise to consecrate his life to founding a congregation devoted to Eucharistic adoration.[34][35] What Eymardian tradition calls the "grace of Fourviere" was not a spectacular vision, but the crystallization of an interior certainty: clergy and Christian people had grown distant from the Blessed Sacrament, and men had to be raised up who would make it the center of their lives.
From this grace onward, one of his first biographers writes, "he would no longer conceive of Christian life except as Eucharistic".[36] Another grace, received on 18 April 1853 at La Seyne-sur-Mer, would confirm and clarify this project of a "Eucharistic order".[37]
The Cure of Ars: Friend and Prophet
The relationship between Eymard and the Cure of Ars is a famous chapter in nineteenth-century spiritual history. Eymard often went to Ars; in 1854, gravely ill during one of his visits, he left healed after Vianney had prayed for him.[38] Above all, in 1856, when the foundation was taking shape, the Cure of Ars blessed the project and, in the middle of catechism, publicly pointed out the visitor to the crowd:
"This religious is Father Eymard; he will have much to suffer: let him not lose courage." - Jean-Marie Vianney, Cure of Ars (1856)[39]
The relationship was not idealized, however: in an 1851 letter, Eymard judged Vianney's opinion on the testimony of the seer of La Salette to be "quite ordinary" - proof that these two saints met as free men, not as stained-glass figures.[40] Their last meeting took place in May 1859, a few months before the death of the Cure of Ars.[41]
The Founder of the Eucharist (1856-1868)
Foundation of the Society of the Blessed Sacrament (13 May 1856)
To carry out his mission, Eymard had to make the most painful sacrifice of his life: leaving the Marists, his religious family for seventeen years. With the authorization of Archbishop Sibour of Paris, he founded in Paris, on 13 May 1856, the Society of the Blessed Sacrament - the future Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (Fathers of the Blessed Sacrament, SSS).[42][43] His first companion was Raymond de Cuers, a former naval officer.
The poverty of the beginnings was extreme. The young community settled in a dilapidated building at 114 rue d'Enfer (today avenue Denfert-Rochereau, Paris XIV).[44] The pontifical approval of Pius IX would confirm the work on 3 June 1863.[45]
The First Adoration (6 January 1857)
On 6 January 1857, the feast of the Epiphany, the Blessed Sacrament was exposed for the first time in the chapel of the new society, and the newborn community - only two members - began adoration.[46] This date is considered the real birth of the Eymardian charism: a people of men prostrate before the Host, in the spirit of the Magi who came to adore the Child-King. Adoration would keep "increasing", as Eymard himself wrote, gradually spreading to other cities.[47]
The Servants of the Blessed Sacrament (1858-1864)
Eymard wanted to give his work a feminine and contemplative branch. As early as 1858, with Marguerite Guillot - who would take the name Mother Marguerite of the Blessed Sacrament - he gathered the nucleus of the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, devoted to perpetual adoration.[48][49] The canonical foundation of the female branch would take place at Angers in 1864.[50]
The Work of the First Communion of Adults
In Paris, Eymard discovered a wound of the emerging industrial society: a multitude of adults - workers, servants, the destitute - who had never made their first communion, for lack of religious instruction. He therefore founded the Work of the First Communion of Adults, catechized them patiently, and led them to the Eucharistic table.[51] This work reveals the deep coherence of his spirituality: adoration is never a devotion folded in on itself, but the hearth of a mission - to give the Eucharistic Jesus to the poorest.
| Eymardian foundation | Date | Place | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Society of the Blessed Sacrament (Fathers) | 13 May 1856 | Paris | Perpetual adoration, Eucharistic priestly life |
| First exposition / adoration | 6 January 1857 | Paris, rue d'Enfer | Birth act of the charism |
| Servants of the Blessed Sacrament | 1858 (nucleus) / 1864 (Angers) | Paris then Angers | Contemplative female branch |
| Work of the First Communion of Adults | 1850s-1860s | Paris | Catechesis and communion of the destitute |
Eymard's Eucharistic Spirituality
"Saving Souls through the Divine Eucharist"
The heart of Eymard's doctrine lies in one missionary conviction: the religious indifference of his century came from the fact that people had forgotten the Eucharist, "the gift of God". The remedy is not first moral but Eucharistic: restore Jesus present to the center, and he will transform souls.
"We must quickly set to work, save souls through the divine Eucharist, and awaken France and Europe, numbed in their sleep of indifference, because they do not know the gift of God, Jesus the Eucharistic Emmanuel. It is the torch of love that must be carried into lukewarm souls." - Peter Julian Eymard, letter to Mme Tholin-Bost[52]
Adoration: "the Center of All"
For Eymard, the Blessed Sacrament is not one object of devotion among others: it is "the Center of all", in the phrase retained by the postulator of his cause.[53] The whole Christian life - prayer, virtues, apostolate - must converge toward the tabernacle and go forth from it. From this he draws a demanding rule for discerning devotions:
"Any devotion that does not have one tent on Calvary and one around the Tabernacle is not solid piety and will never do anything great." - Peter Julian Eymard[54]
The "Gift of Self" (Rome, 21 March 1865)
The summit of his spiritual life was a grace received in Rome, where he had come for a matter concerning a foundation. During a retreat of several weeks with the Redemptorists (Villa Caserta), on 21 March 1865, the feast of Saint Benedict, Eymard received what he called the "gift of self": a total stripping away of his own ego, an absolute surrender of his whole being to Christ.[55] He committed himself by vow:
"I have made the perpetual vow of my personality to Our Lord Jesus Christ, into the hands of the Most Holy Virgin Mary and of Saint Joseph, under the patronage of Saint Benedict: nothing for me and no one... nothing through me." - Peter Julian Eymard, Rome, 21 March 1865[56]
This grace of self-dispossession joins, in the language of the nineteenth century, what the spiritual tradition calls the life of abandonment: no longer living for oneself, but letting Christ live and act in oneself.
Abandonment to the Will of God
In his direction of souls, Eymard constantly returns to one maxim: abandonment to the holy will of God, which he calls "the great law of life" and "the sovereign virtue of Jesus".[57] This insistence places him within the great current of spirituality of trust and abandonment: doing the will of God means submitting one's will to His. It is the first step, distinct from living IN the Divine Will — having but one will with God, the gift of the third Fiat revealed to Luisa Piccarreta — which this abandonment prepares without being confused with it.
"Always abandon yourself well to the holy will of God over you, good daughter; you know that this is your great law of life, your grace and your only virtue; but it is the mother of all the others; it is the sovereign virtue of Jesus." - Peter Julian Eymard, letter of 16 March 1866[58]
The Eucharist, Unique Greatness among the Works of Christ
Eymard stresses the unique greatness of the Eucharist among the works of Christ: total gift, permanent and silent presence of Jesus in the tabernacle, around which the whole life of the Church ought to be organized.[59][60] This is the intuition that, a century later, the whole movement of Eucharistic congresses and perpetual adoration would prolong.
Death, Glory, and Legacy
Death at La Mure (1 August 1868)
Worn out by foundations, contradictions, and penances, Eymard saw his health decline. In the summer of 1868, exhausted, he returned to his native town of La Mure. He died there on 1 August 1868, at fifty-seven, of a cerebral hemorrhage, having given his life to the Eucharistic work to the end.[61][62] The prophecy of the Cure of Ars - "he will have much to suffer" - had been fulfilled.
Beatification (1925) and Canonization (1962)
Eymard's cause advanced in the twentieth century. Declared Venerable in 1908 by Pius X, he was beatified on 12 July 1925 by Pius XI.[63]
The date of beatification is sometimes mistakenly given as 1926: the congregation and the French sources confirm 12 July 1925; it is the opening of the canonization cause that dates from 1926.[64]
The canonization took place on 9 December 1962, by John XXIII, at the close of the first session of the Second Vatican Council, before an assembly of about sixty cardinals and more than two thousand bishops.[65] He was canonized on the same day as Anthony Mary Pucci and Francis Mary of Camporosso. The decree soberly calls him a "Confessor".[66]
"Eminent Apostle of the Eucharist" (Decree of 9 December 1995)
The name "Apostle of the Eucharist" is attested in the act inscribing Eymard in the General Roman Calendar: on 9 December 1995, John Paul II had his memorial inscribed there, as an optional memorial, with liturgical feast fixed on 2 August, the day it occupies today (it had first been celebrated on 3 August, then on 1 August after the canonization).[67][68][69] According to the official biography published by his congregation, the decree recognizes him as "an outstanding apostle of the Eucharist".[70]
Legacy: a Forerunner of Eucharistic Renewal
Eymard's intuition overflowed far beyond his congregation. The renewal of perpetual adoration, the movement of international Eucharistic congresses (from 1881 onward), the twentieth-century spirituality of the Real Presence, and even the contemporary revival of adoration among younger generations all prolong, each in its own way, the founder's cry: to restore Jesus in the Host "to the center". The Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament and the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, present on several continents, perpetuate his charism.[71]
Chronological Landmarks
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 4 February 1811 | Birth at La Mure (Isere) |
| 7 June 1829 | Entry into the novitiate of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Marseille; illness, departure |
| 20 July 1834 | Priestly ordination for the Diocese of Grenoble |
| 1839 | Entry into the Society of Mary (Marists) |
| 1845-1846 | Director of the Third Order of Mary in Lyon |
| 21 January 1851 | Grace of Fourviere: promise to found a Eucharistic work |
| 13 May 1856 | Foundation of the Society of the Blessed Sacrament in Paris |
| 6 January 1857 | First exposition and adoration, rue d'Enfer |
| 1858 / 1864 | Nucleus and then foundation of the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament (Angers) |
| 3 June 1863 | Pontifical approval by Pius IX |
| 21 March 1865 | Grace of the "gift of self" in Rome |
| 1 August 1868 | Death at La Mure |
| 1908 / 1925 / 1962 | Venerable / Beatified / Canonized |
Further Reading
- Saint John Mary Vianney (1786-1859) - the Cure of Ars, Eymard's friend, who blessed his foundation and prophesied his sufferings.
- Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) - Doctor of the Church and author of Visits to the Blessed Sacrament, a major source of modern Eucharistic devotion of which Eymard is an heir.
- Saint Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897) - another figure of abandonment and trust, contemporary with Eymard's legacy.
- Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort (1673-1716) - apostle of total consecration, a spiritual kin to Eymard's "gift of self."
- The Divine Will - the gift of living in the Divine Will, distinct from Eymard's abandonment which disposes toward it.
Notes and References
Catholic Encyclopedia (NewAdvent), "Pierre-Julien Eymard": newadvent.org/cathen/05735b.htm. Reference notice: birth on 4 February 1811 at La Mure d'Isere (Diocese of Grenoble), entry into the novitiate of the Oblates of Mary in 1829 interrupted by illness, ordination on 20 July 1834, entry among the Marists, pilgrimage to Fourviere in January 1851 and promise to found a congregation, first exposition of the Blessed Sacrament on 6 January 1857, foundation of the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament in 1858, death at La Mure on 1 August 1868. (The notice mistakenly attributes to him the title "Provincial of the Oblates": it concerns the Marists.)
1 5 7 12 21 24 29 30 34 46 48 62Wikipedia (FR), "Pierre-Julien Eymard": fr.wikipedia.org. Biographical details: father a cutler and oil presser, member of the Confraternity of Penitents of the Blessed Sacrament (1817); entry among the Marists; approval by Pius IX on 3 June 1863; nuanced relationship with the Cure of Ars (1851 letter on La Salette); death on 1 August 1868 from cerebral hemorrhage; beatification on 12 July 1925. To be cross-checked with primary sources.
2 13 14 15 19 27 40 45 61Peter Julian Eymard, Conseils de vie spirituelle - extraits de sa correspondance, Nouvelle Cite, Bruyeres-le-Chatel, 2015 (ISBN 9782853137720), texts taken from the OEuvres completes, ed. Centro Eucaristico / Nouvelle Cite, 17 vols., 2008. Primary source for the quotations: baptism-anniversary letter to his sisters ("the most beautiful day of my life"); recollection of his youthful illness ("condemned to death by all the doctors"); letters to Mme Tholin-Bost on the urgency of "saving souls through the divine Eucharist" and "the tent on Calvary and around the Tabernacle"; letter to Mme Josephine Gourd of 16 March 1866 (CO 1766; IV, 373) on abandonment to the will of God as the "sovereign virtue of Jesus"; phrase "the Center of all" reported by the postulator Edmond Tenaillon (preface to the Lettres de direction, 1901). The correspondence comprises 2,212 letters to 251 recipients.
3 16 17 22 23 31 32 36 37 47 52 53 54 57 58 59Chapelle Corpus Christi (Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament), biography of Peter Julian Eymard: chapellecorpuschristi.fr. Foundation in Paris on 13 May 1856 with the authorization of Archbishop Sibour; Work of the First Communion of Adults; nucleus of the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament in 1858 with Marguerite Guillot and foundation at Angers in 1864; permanence of the charism of adoration.
4 43 49 50 51 60 71Nominis (Catholic Church in France), "Saint Pierre-Julien Eymard": nominis.cef.fr. Son of a merchant from a village near Grenoble; entry into the Society of Mary in 1839; grace of vocation at Fourviere on 21 January 1851; liturgical feast on 2 August.
6 28 35 69Wikipedia (EN), "Peter Julian Eymard": en.wikipedia.org. Ordination on 20 July 1834 for the Diocese of Grenoble; vicar at Chatte then pastor (Mont-Saint-Eynard / Monteynard); consent of the Paris authorities on 13 May 1856 to the "Society of the Blessed Sacrament"; first public exposition on 6 January 1857 in a dilapidated building at 114 rue d'Enfer. Warning: this notice contains errors not to repeat: father "blacksmith", entry among the Marists in "1837", beatification in "1926" - all corrected by the French sources and the congregation.
8 25 26 42 44Shrine of Ars, "Saint Pierre-Julien Eymard": arsnet.org. Reception of the Cure of Ars into the Third Order of Mary on 8 December 1846; Eymard's healing at Ars in 1854 after Vianney's prayer; blessing of the foundation project in 1856 and public word in the middle of catechism ("This religious is Father Eymard, he will have much to suffer, let him not lose courage"); last meeting in May 1859.
9 33 38 39 41Eymardian Places (Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament), "Canonisation": eymardianplaces.com/biography/canonisation and "Decree of Canonisation, 9 December 1962": eymardianplaces.com. Beatification by Pius XI on 12 July 1925; canonization by John XXIII on 9 December 1962 at the close of the first session of Vatican II, together with Anthony Mary Pucci and Francis Mary of Camporosso; decree calling the three new saints "Confessors"; successive moves of the feast (3 August -> 1 August in 1962 -> 2 August in 1995).
10 63 64 65 66 68Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (SSS), official biography of the founder ("Life Story", notice taken from the booklet of the Complete Works, pp. 3-9): ssscongregatio.org — "On 9 December 1995, Pope John Paul II inscribed his name in the universal calendar of the Church and fixed his liturgical feast on 2 August, recognizing him as 'an outstanding apostle of the Eucharist'"; the Associates' formation session quotes the 1995 decree: "he truly deserves to be called an outstanding apostle of the Eucharist". The text of the Roman decree itself (Congregation for Divine Worship) was not consulted directly: the formula is given here as reported by the congregation.
11 67 70Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), notice "Eymard, Pierre-Julien": omiworld.org. Entry into the OMI novitiate of Marseille (Saint-Just) on 7 June 1829; "he worked too much, fell ill and had to leave the novitiate after five months."
18 20Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (SSS), "Le don de soi du Pere Eymard": ssscongregatio.org. Roman retreat of 1865 with the Redemptorists (Villa Caserta); grace of the "gift of self" received on 21 March 1865 (feast of Saint Benedict); text of the vow: "nothing for me and no one... nothing through me."
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