Saint Peter Julian Eymard

August 3
Peter Julian was born in a small town in the French diocese of Grenoble in 1811. In the
same diocese, the apparitions of Our Lady at La Salette took place.
He worked with his father in his knife factory and later in an oil press until he was 18
years old. In his free time he studied Latin and was taught by a priest from Grenoble, with
whom he also worked for some time.
In 1831 he entered the seminary of Grenoble and in three years he was ordained a priest. In
his first five years as a priest he served at a parish in Chatte and Monteynard. He then asked
the bishop for permission to join the Marist Brothers. At the end of his novitiate, Peter
Julian was appointed spiritual director of the minor seminary of Belley and was later
elected Provincial Superior of Lyons in 1845.
The center of his spiritual life had always been devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. The
saint said: "Without Him, I would lose my soul". The saint relates an extraordinary
experience in a Corpus Christi procession as he carried the Blessed Sacrament in his
hands: "My soul was flooded with faith and love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. The
two hours passed like an instant. I placed at the feet of the Lord the Church of France, the
whole world, myself. My eyes were full of tears, as if my heart were a winepress. At that
moment, I would have liked all hearts to be with mine and to burn with a zeal like that of
St. Paul".
After 4 years in the Seyne, encouraged by the founders of the Marists, Pius IX and the
venerable John Colin, he decided to leave the Company of Mary to found the new
Congregation of Priests adoring the Blessed Sacrament, in 1856. He presented his plan to
Bishop Sibour, Archbishop of Paris, who received approval 12 days later.
St. Peter Julian, together with a companion, settled in the house that the Archbishop of
Paris himself put at his disposal. On January 6, 1857, in the chapel of the house, Julian
exposed the Blessed Sacrament for the first time and preached in the new congregation.
Father Eymard had to face many criticisms for having left the Company of Mary and
suffered opposition to his work. The Saint said to them: "You do not understand the work
and you believe that you do well to oppose it. I already knew that the work was going to
be persecuted. Was not the Lord persecuted during his life?".
Many were called, but few were chosen. Progress was slow and difficult. They had to
move house. In 1858 they got a little chapel in the suburb of Saint-Jacques. Fr. Eymard
called this place "the chapel of miracles" because for 9 years, the Lord poured out there
in abundance. The Blessed Sacrament was exposed 3 times a week. The following year,
Pius IX issued a brief in praise of the congregation.
Then the second house was opened in Marseille and the third in Angers in 1862. By then
there were enough members to establish a regular novitiate. The priests prayed the divine
office in choir and exercised pastoral ministries. Their main mission is the adoration of the
Blessed Sacrament, in which the lay brothers help.
Working with priests and sisters was not their only objective. He founded the " Work for
Adults ", an organization dedicated to preparing adult men and women for first communion
when due to age or work they could not attend parish catechesis.
He organized the Archconfraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, which canon law then
ordered to be established in all parishes. He wrote several works on the Eucharist which
have been translated into several languages.
Many considered him to be a true saint, his sanctity could be seen in everything: in his
daily life full of works and virtues, especially love, and in his supernatural gifts. He had
prophetic visions, guessed thoughts and read hearts.
St. John Vianney knew him personally and said of him: "He is a saint. The world opposes his
work because it does not know it, but it is an enterprise that will accomplish great things for
the glory of God. Priestly adoration, what a wonder! ... Tell Father Eymard that I will ask
daily for his work".
In the last years of his life, Fr. Eymard had a rheumatic drop,suffered from insomnia and
many other diseases. To his sufferings were added innumerable difficulties.
He foresaw his death. His sister asked him in February to go more often to Mure, and he
said to her: "I will come back sooner than you think". Fr. Eymard went to visit his friends
and penitents, speaking to them as if it was the last time he saw them. On February 21
Father Eymard left Grenoble for La Mure. Because of the intense heat and tiredness, he
arrived almost unconscious and with an attack of partial paralysis.
He dies on August 1. Before the end of that year several miracles occured in his tomb.
Father Eymard was beatified in 1925 and canonized by St. John XXIII on December 9, 1962.
Prayer
Lord God, who filled the heart of St. Peter Julian Eymard with a great love for the sacred
mysteries of the Body and Blood of your Son, grant us to receive from each Eucharist an
abundant spiritual strength.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the
Holy Spirit, and is God forever and ever. Amen