St. John Eudes

Jean Eudes was born on November 14, 1601, in the small Norman town of Ri, France, the son of a farmer. He grew up in a region still marked by the religious wars of the previous century, and his early years were shaped by a strong Catholic faith nurtured at home and in the local parish. From a young age, he felt drawn to the priesthood, and he was eventually sent to the Jesuit college at Caen, where he received a solid humanistic and theological formation.

In 1623, Eudes joined the Oratory of Jesus and Mary in Paris, an association of secular priests founded by Pierre de Bérulle that emphasized spiritual formation and the renewal of the French clergy. It was among the Oratorians that he was ordained, around 1625, and he was soon sent to the diocese of Lisieux. There he preached parish missions, and in 1634 he helped found a congregation of women religious to care for women in difficult situations, a project that reflected his lifelong concern for those on the margins of society.

In 1643, Eudes left the Oratory to establish a new community, which led him to found the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, also known as the Eudists, in 1643 (some sources note 1643 or shortly after). The Eudists were dedicated to the formation of diocesan clergy through seminaries, a pressing need in a France where many priests were poorly trained. He also founded the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge to shelter women who had been driven to prostitution by poverty or coercion, an apostolate that cost him a great deal of energy in a country only beginning to recover from the upheavals of the Fronde. It is for this latter work that St. John Eudes is sometimes cited as a co-patron of those who work with survivors of exploitation, although that association is widely noted but not formally proclaimed by the Church.

Eudes' most lasting contribution to Catholic spirituality was the promotion of the devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. In 1672, he composed the Mass and Office of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, more than a year before the revelations to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque at Paray-le-Monial, and he is generally credited as the first to give this devotion a public liturgical expression. He was likewise the first to compose a Mass and Office in honor of the Heart of Mary. He wrote extensively on the interior life, including the devotional classic "The Life and Kingdom of Jesus," and he died at Caen on August 19, 1680, in the middle of a mission he was preaching.

John Eudes was beatified in 1909 and canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1925. He is honored as one of the great missionary preachers of seventeenth-century France, and his writings continue to nourish the spiritual life. His feast day is observed on August 19 in the current Roman calendar, and his Congregation of Jesus and Mary and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge still carry on his work in many parts of the world.