I'll trade you a statue for your Rosary?
From the biography of St Jean-Marie Baptiste Vianney, le Cure d'Ars--this material is from the time when he was about 4 years old:"The boy had a rosary which he greatly prized. Marguerite, who was eighteen months younger, took a fancy to her brother's beads, and, of course, wished to get possession of them. It came to a scene between brother and sister; there was screaming, stamping of feet, and even a preliminary skirmish, when suddenly, full of grief, the poor child ran to his mother. Gently, but firmly, she bade him give the beads to Marguerite: 'Yes, my darling, give them to her for love of the good God.' Jean-Marie, though bathed in tears, immediately surrendered his precious rosary. For a child of four this was surely no mean sacrifice!
"Instead of petting and fondling the child with a view to drying his tears, his mother gave him a small wooden statue of our Lady. The rude image had long stood on the mantelpiece of the kitchen chimney, and the little one had often wished to possess it. At last it was his, really his! What joy! 'Oh! how I loved that statue,' he confessed seventy years later; 'neither by day nor by night would I be parted from it. I should not have slept had I not had it beside me in my little bed . . . the Blessed Virgin was the object of my earliest affections; I loved her even before I knew her.' "
by Iosephus @ 10/22/2005 01:33:00 AM
4 comments
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, ora pro nobis
St. Joseph, ora pro nobis
St. Ambrose of Milan, ora pro nobis
St. Dominic, ora pro nobis
St. Francis (and St. Clare), orate pro nobis
St. Catherine of Siena, ora pro nobis
St. Alphonsus Ligouri, ora pro nobis
St. John Chrysostom, ora pro nobis
4 Comments:
We should be glad for Marguerite's sake that it was only a "preliminary skirmish."
This material probably deserves a separate post, but I don't want to give it the time right now. Suffice it that some of you see this, in whatever form.
I highly recommend to you the biography of the Cure d'Ars from TAN. I take from it the following, about Jean's early days in the parish of Ars:
"More often than not, before retiring to this rude resting place, he subjected his body to a yet more severe punishment. Armed with a discipline, the effectiveness of which had been increased by sharp iron points, he mercilessly struck his 'corpse', 'this old Adam,' as he used to call his poor body.
"On certain nights a woman of Lyons, who lodged with Mere Renard, heard him thus punishing himself for the space of an hour or more; now and again he would pause for a moment, only to resume with renewed energy. 'When is he going to stop?' the compassionate neighbours would say.
"He made his own instruments of penance, or, at least, he repaired and improved them. The person who did his room in the morning used to find under the furniture fragments of chains, small keys, and bits of iron or lead which had come off his disciplines.
"A discipline lasted him only fifteen days. 'It was painful to see the left sleeve of his shirt all cut up and dyed with blood,' says Catherine Lassagne.
"He apparently fainted more than once, when he would lie, covered with blood, against the wall. In a corner of his room, hidden by the curtain that hangs from the tester of the bed, the yellow plastering is bespotted with drops of blood which are still discernible. Three large stains give fairly distinct impressions of a shoulder, and from these dark patches thin streaks have trickled down to the pavement. Other stains show impressions of fingers and the palm of a hand. The saint left these marks upon the wall when leaning against is for support, or in an endeavour to rise from the floor when he had swooned."
This guy is amazing. The great stuff about him just won't stop. Look at this:
"From the moment he saw it, M. Vianney loved the old church as he had loved the paternal home. When he undertook its restoration he began with what holds the foremost place, the altar, which is the centre and raison d'etre of the sanctuary. Out of reverence for the Holy Eucharist, he wished to secure as beautiful an altar as possible. His first purchase was made with his own money, and he refused to appeal to the charitable chatelaine. It gave him boundless joy to help the workmen in the setting up of the new altar. In order to get some additional ornaments he journeyed on foot to Lyons. He came back from his pilgrimage, also on foot, with two small heads of angels, which he placed on either side of the tabernacle. Finally, in order that the frame might harmonize with the picture, he himself painted afresh all the faded woodwork.
"After these improvements he undertook the task, to use his own picturesque and touching phrase, of adding to household possessions of the good God. He went to Lyons to visit the workshops of embroiderers and goldsmiths. Whatever was most precious he purchased, so that the purveryors of church furniture would say with astonishment: 'In this district there lives a little cure, lean, badly dressed, looking as if he had not a sou in his pocket, yet only the very best things are good enough for his church.'
"One day, in 1825, Mlle d'Ars took him into the city for the purpose of buying a vestment for Mass. Vestment after vestment was exhibited, but he kept repeating: 'Not good enough! I must have something better than that.' "
While St. John Vianney performed many miracles throughout his life, such as the healing of children, and the obtaining of money for various charities, "the greatest miracle of all was his life," as the article at New Advent says of him.
In regard to his mortifications, I remember reading once that he often slept not in his bedroom, but on top of a pile of logs in the basement of the church rectory.
Pope St. Pius X was quite devoted to the Cure, and kept a large bronze statue of him on his desk in the Vatican. It was during his reign that the Cure was beatified.
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