Note: For the Year of the Eucharist, every month I will feature one saint devoted to the Eucharist and a challenge.
In this Year of the Eucharist, no saint should figure more prominently than St. Peter Julian Eymard, the Apostle of the Eucharist. The foreword to his translated work on holy Communion describes his view on the Eucharist: “To this priest of the Eucharist, the Blessed Sacrament is everything: it is the sacrifice par excellence, the sacrament of love, the fountainhead of holiness, the goal of Christian perfection, the nutriment of piety, and the means as well as the model of religious life. It brings peace to families and a remedy to social ills. The Blessed Sacrament is everything.”
The Life of St. Peter Julian Eymard
St. Peter Julian Eymard had a devotion to the Eucharist from the very beginning of his life. According to one story, he went missing when he was 5, and his sisters went frantically looking for him. They found him in the village church, on a small stool, with his ear next to the tabernacle, and he told his sister that he wanted to hear Jesus better.
He was born in 1811 to a poor family in southern France and suffered many trials throughout his life. He faced chronic illnesses, including ‘weakness of the lungs’ and migraine headaches. He always wanted to be a priest but he lived immediately after the French Revolution when society was hostile to priests.
After his mother died in 1828, young Peter entered the seminary for the first time. His father protested his vocation, as Peter was his only surviving son. He was unable to complete the seminary due to health issues and had to return home.
His father soon passed away, and he returned to seminary once again, determined to become a priest. In 1834, at age 23, was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Grenoble. He ministered to the local community with great success, but felt called to do more.
He also had a great devotion to the Blessed Mother, and visited the numerous shrines dedicated to her in France. Spurred by this love of Mary, he decided to leave the diocesan priesthood and join the Society of Mary (Marists).
He held numerous administrative roles in the Marists and promoted devotion to the Blessed Mother throughout France. He developed a national reputation as a speaker, organizer and educator. In his travels, he learned more about eucharistic devotion and petitioned his superiors to form a Marist community dedicated to eucharistic adoration.
When his superiors denied his request, he felt called to leave the Marists and found a new community focused on the Eucharist. In 1856, he founded the Society of the Blessed Sacrament with the support of the bishop of Paris. In 1858 he founded the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, a contemplative congregation for women.
The new communities focused on eucharistic devotion, in particular preparing the young for first holy Communion and bringing non-practicing Catholic workers in Paris back to the sacraments. The new order encountered financial crises and he found it difficult to find lodging and food for its members.
Even with these difficulties, his order grew and opened new houses. St. Peter Julian Eymard died on Aug. 1, 1868. He was remembered for his great love of Jesus in the Eucharist and was canonized by St. John XXIII on Dec. 9, 1962.
Challenge for this Month: Read St. Peter Julian Eymard on the Eucharist
St. Peter Julian Eymard composed numerous sermons, retreats and reflections on the Eucharist as well as the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph. These writings have been collected into nine volumes of the Eymard Library. The nine volumes are short, cheap and packed with spiritual treasures.
The first volume on the real presence which “leads to a better knowledge and deeper love of Christ in the Eucharist,” and the second volume on holy Communion which “concentrates on how to attend Mass meditatively, to make a better Communion and a more perfect thanksgiving” are essential readings for those who desire to love Jesus more in the Eucharist.
At the very least, spend some time this month contemplating short excerpts from his writing found here or here. Some inspiring quotes are:
“The Eucharist is the supreme proof of the love of Jesus. After this, there is nothing more but heaven itself”
“The Eucharist is everything, because from the Eucharist, everything is”
“Hear Mass daily; it will prosper the whole day. All your duties will be performed the better for it, and your soul will be stronger to bear its daily cross. The Mass is the most holy act of religion; you can do nothing that can give greater glory to God or be more profitable for your soul than to hear Mass both frequently and devoutly. It is the favorite devotion of the saints.”
“The Eucharist is the life of the people. The Eucharist gives them a center of life. All can come together without the barriers of race or language in order to celebrate the feast days of the Church. It gives them a law of life, that of charity, of which it is the source; thus it forges between them a common bond, a Christian kinship”
June Challenge: St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and First Friday Devotion
July Challenge: St. Tarcisius and Reverence for the Eucharist
Also see
Copyright © 2021 Catholic Review Media
