The Cure d'Ars: St. Jean-Marie Baptiste Vianney

by François Trochu

Book Overview

The definitive life, based on the official "Process of Beatification and Canonization," and thus totally factual and documented. Of humble education and assigned to a forgotten farmers' village, he... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0895550202
• ISBN13: 9780895550200
• Release Date: March 1992
• Publisher: Tan Books
• Length: 652 Pages
• Weight: 1.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Hagiography based on facts and research, not fantasy!

Often books about saints are so full of fanciful musings and imaginings that it is difficult to decode fact from fiction. This book is based on the research proceedings and interviews of witnesses for the canonization of St. Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney. The book examines the life of the saint through the eyes of those who lived and interacted with him on a daily basis and recounts stories based on theirs shared experiences of the man. The author presents the reader with documented accounts much like what one would hear from witnesses recounting events that had taken place in a court of law. This gives the book a certain authenticity. Clearly, the author has a tremendous amount of respect for the Cure d'Ars but I think that it is the result of what he has uncovered in the collected documents of the saint's life rather than the musings of a man who out of an admiration for a saint, whose life is documented only through fanciful stories based on hearsay or legends, has written a text that is difficult to accept because of the lack of evidence for what is being presented. I would recommend this book because it is well written, balanced and accessible to most readers. I also find that you will get of fairly clear picture of who the Cure of Ars was, how he lived and what he accomplished over the course of his relatively long life. He was truly a remarkable man!

Review from Pope John Paul II

"In the span of nearly 50 years of priesthood, what is still the most important and most sacred moment for me is the celebration of the Eucharist. My awareness of celebrating in persona Christi at the altar prevails. Never in the course of these years have I failed to celebrate the Most Holy Sacrifice. If this has occurred, it has been due entirely to reasons independent of my will. Holy Mass is the absolute center of my life and of every day of my life. It is at the heart of the theology of the priesthood, a theology I learned not so much from text books as from living examples of holy priests. First and foremost, from the holy Cure of Ars, Jean Marie Vianney. Still today I remember his biography written by Fr. Trochu, which literally overwhelmed me."  (English text of the address given at the International Symposium on the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Promulgation of the Conciliar Decree Presbyterorum Ordinis on Friday, October 27, 1995. Text acquired from L'Osservatore Romano, Weekly English Edition.) Text can also be viewed at the Vatican web site.

Review from the Publisher

The definitive life, based on the official "Process of Beatification and Canonization," and thus totally factual and documented. Of humble education and assigned to a forgotten farmers' village, he attracted the whole world to Ars and was proclaimed "Patron Saint of Parish Priests" in 1929. Ate one meal a day, slept only a few hours a night, heard confessions up to 17 hours a day, converted thousands. His body remains incorrupt. A grace-filled story of total love of God!

An astounding life of a saint

I first read this many years ago and it was a favorite book of mine. The Cure d'ars was such a saintly man-and this book was wonderfully inspiring to read. A treasure.

"A most inspirational account of an extraordinary man"

St. John Vianney captured my mind, heart, and soul, as a person who struggled life long to bring goodness to the people of Ars. His simplicity of life, acceptance of his limited natural knowledge, drew people all over France to his confessional. He was a seer of souls, and a guide for the down trodden, neglected, broken people of God. His simplicity of life, child like faith, won over the generosity of the rich so as to provide for the ragged, neglected, and impoverished children of Ars and the surrounding villages.