St. John Vianney Holy Card (127148)

Holy card featuring the image of St. John Vianney with a biography.

Saint John Mary Vianney is familiarly known as the Cure of Ars and as such as the heavenly patron of all parish priests. He was born of poor parents in Dardilly, France, in 1786. He began his studies for the priesthood at the age of nineteen and only after many failures and difficulties was he ordained in 1815. He was appointed pastor of the village of Ars where the Faith had practically vanished. Here he labored for the rest of hid life gaining a worldwide reputation as a priest who practiced great penance, exercised a wondrous power in the confessional, and softened the hearts of sinners by his preaching. After many trials, not the last of which was an obsession by the devil, Father Vianney, exhausted by his labors and his penance, returned his soul to God in 1859. He was canonized in 1929 and his feast is celebrated on August 4.