St John Vianney

[Monica4316]

Can someone please tell me more about this Saint? does anyone here have a devotion to him?

His intercession really helped me right now but I don’t know very much about him. I’d love to learn though

thanks!!

 

[Erethorn]

Monica4316, I’m sorry I can’t be of much help, beside pointing to the Wikipedia article on St. John Vianney: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_John_Vianney%27s_prayer_to_Jesus

I have a question for you though:

How can you tell when a particular saint’s intercession has helped you ? Have you been praying to him and your prayer was answered ?

 

[Student09]

How can you tell when a particular saint’s intercession has helped you ? Have you been praying to him and your prayer was answered ?

Good question!

 

[ejb21]

Can someone please tell me more about this Saint? does anyone here have a devotion to him?

His intercession really helped me right now but I don’t know very much about him. I’d love to learn though

thanks!!

I like John Vianney alot. He had great difficulties with his studies in becoming a priest. As he was on his way to his parish at Ars he met a child, and he said to the child “show me the way to Ars and I’ll show you the way to heaven”. Upon arriving at his residence he sold most of the furniture and gave the money to the poor. He ate very little. He heard confessions sometimes 16 hours a day. Thousands converted, with his help.

 

[Monica4316]

How can you tell when a particular saint’s intercession has helped you ? Have you been praying to him and your prayer was answered ?

Hi Erethorn

yes, that’s generally how it works… this morning, I asked St John Vianney to pray for me about something that I’ve been struggling with for a while. And after I prayed to him, it got resolved

sometimes Saints also give little signs that they’re praying for you. I used to be very skeptical of this until I said a novena to St Therese. It’s said that when people pray this novena, she sometimes sends them roses (cause before she died she said she’ll send out a shower of roses, or favours, from Heaven.) It doesn’t always happens cause sometimes God wants us to rely on faith, not signs. But it seems I needed a sign lol. I was very skeptical and didn’t believe that the Saints can hear my prayers.

However, here’s what happened… I got up in the morning and knelt by my ‘home altar’ and said the novena. Then right when I looked up, I saw a vase full of pink roses on the altar! I was so surprised lol!!! it turns out that my mom put them there, but she never used to do this, and she later told me she just “felt like it”. The really weird thing is that I didn’t notice the roses the first 3 times I looked at the little table before I prayed… I can’t explain that lol.

this continued throughout the whole novena… one time I went for a dentist check up and didn’t have time to pray in the morning, so I prayed in the car. I finished the novena as I was walking into the office. Then I sat down in the waiting room, and lo and behold right beside me was a kleenex box (lol!) with roses drawn on it and it said “la petite rose” (the little rose in French). Well St Therese was French, and she’s called “the little flower”, and her symbol is the rose… haha…

this happened several times in different ways. One time I was saying the novena in church, and right when I finished it, a little girl walked past me and she wore a long dress with huge red roses printed on it.

I think that St John Vianney gave me a type of sign as well this morning. After I prayed and my problem got resolved, I still felt somewhat doubtful. (because that’s how I am ). I asked St John again to help me in a way that I would understand. Then, a minute later, I went online and visited another Catholic forum… a person there, who was dealing with the same issue I was, had a new avatar. And the avatar had a picture of St John Vianney. this just helped me to believe the answer to my prayer that I already knew in my heart. Before, I was kind of afraid to trust it. I finally feel peace about the situation now.

So I wanted to learn more about St John Vianney for this reason

God bless

 

[Monica4316]

I like John Vianney alot. He had great difficulties with his studies in becoming a priest. As he was on his way to his parish at Ars he met a child, and he said to the child “show me the way to Ars and I’ll show you the way to heaven”. Upon arriving at his residence he sold most of the furniture and gave the money to the poor. He ate very little. He heard confessions sometimes 16 hours a day. Thousands converted, with his help.

wow! thanks!

 

[DOShea]

This book is really written for young foks, but it explains his life very well. Not very expensive either.

The Cure of Ars

It goes into his early life, with he and his family helping to hide priests who were being hunted and persecuted by the civil forces. Then his struggles to learn Latin in order to become a priest. He actually failed all his examinations in Latin, but the Bishop saw something in him and ordained him anyway, trusting God to give him all the help he needed.

The best parts are how he deals with his critics. They would say the absolutely cruelest things about him, often completely untrue, be he never tried to defend or explain. Instead, he would admit everything they said is true and beg their forgiveness. Every time he did this, put himself least among his critics and asked for forgiveness, it melted them in their tracks. Before long, even his harshest critics were following him.

He was given the assignment to pastor the small church in the tiny village of Ars, a small hamlet of about 200 people. Once they had a thriving church, but it was in ruins when he got there. The very first thing he did was to walk around town and see how everyone was living. When he got back to the church, he realized the only way back for them was penance, and since they weren’t doing any, he would do it for them. He went upstairs and took his mattress of the bed and gave it to a beggar. All he kept was a small blanket and slept on the wooden frame.

In the end he recovered his flock and was at least involved in several miraculous cures, though he never would take any credit for them. It scared him, actually, and he would tell people it wasn’t him, it was the other Saints that he prayed to that interceded and asked God to grant the miracles.

When it became clear he was winning these wayward souls of his village back into communion with God, he began experiencing horrific visions, nightmares, and the kind of sounds and creepy things like a Poltergeist movie. Satan was after him, and hounded him relentlessly. It was believed that Satan would try to disrupt the little sleep he managed in order to make him fall asleep during his long hours of confessions. There was quite an ongoing battle, but St. John V. won through prayer, faith, and living the gospel.