DEATH AND BEATIFICATION OF THE BLESSED CURÉ.
IT was in the summer of 1859, that the venerable curé showed that his energies were nearly spent. He was then heard repeatedly to exclaim: "Alas, the sinners will kill the sinner."
On Friday, July 29th, after having as usual spent from sixteen to seventeen hours in the confessional, he returned to the rectory completely exhausted. He sank into a chair saying: "I can do no more." The priest who saw him, immediately put him to bed. On the following morning his illness was so pronounced that a fatal termination was feared. In the village and among the numerous visitors to Ars the greatest sorrow was felt. For three days the church was crowded with the faithful, praying that their curé might not be taken from them.
The curé did not join his prayers to those of his people for he felt that his last hour was approaching. On Friday evening he received the last sacraments. He shed tears of love when the Holy Viaticum was brought to him and as Extreme Unction was being administered. For the last time he blessed all who were present as well as his whole parish. On Wednesday morning he smilingly acknowledged the greeting of his bishop, who had hurried to his bedside. On Thursday, Aug. 4th, at two o'clock in the morning, while his friend and assistant, the Abbé Monnin, was saying the prayers for the dying and had just uttered the words: "May the holy Angels of God come forth to meet him and conduct him into the city of the Heavenly Jerusalem," the loving soul left his frail body to be received, as we may devoutly hope, into the presence of the Divine Master, whom he had served so long and so faithfully.
The demise of the good curé was immediately made known to the sorrowing community. On Saturday of that week the interment took place. Almost six thousand persons, many of whom came from afar, attended the funeral. Three hundred priests accompanied the remains to the grave. The bishop of Belley, in his eulogy, selected his text from the office of the feast of the Saints and Confessors: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord." All present understood the sentiments which prompted the selection of that particular text and trusted that their hope would not be disappointed.
Rarely has a process of beatification been set in motion so quickly as was that of John Baptist Vianney. Hardly forty-five years had elapsed since the remains of the deceased were laid at rest, under the pulpit of his parish church, when the Holy See announced its decision permitting the beatification process to be introduced.
As early as Oct, 3d, 1874, Pope Pius IX, after examining the various writings and biographical notices relating to the deceased and published by reliable contemporaries, conferred on the humble curé the title "Venerable Servant of God." On June 21st, 1896, Pope Leo XIII, presiding, the last session of the commission took place, which was to pronounce upon the saintly merits of the venerable curé. The favorable conclusion which everyone expected was announced by Cardinal Parocchi. On Aug. 1st, of that year, Pope Leo XIII, issued a decree reciting the honors paid to the humble curé of Ars and his own personal admiration for his exalted virtue.
Seven years later, in 1903, the same Pope called a session of the commission to consider the testimony and reports relative to the miracles which had taken place at the tomb of the departed. This session, however, was not held, for on the day which had been appointed the venerable pope lay at the point of death and soon after, viz., on July 20th, of that year, the Catholic world had to mourn the passing away of its spiritual head.
The happy distinction, however, of being able to glorify the humble country curate had been reserved by God for one who himself had been formerly a plain country curate. On Aug. 4th, 1903, at the very hour, when at Ars they were celebrating a solemn High Mass on the forty- fourth anniversary of the death of John Baptist Vianney, another solemn ceremony was taking place at Rome, viz., the election of the former village curé of Salzano, later Cardinal Sarto, patriarch of Venice, to the Papacy, who chose for himself the title of Pius X.
As early as Jan. 26th, 1904, the new supreme pontiff presided at that session of the cardinals over which his illustrious predecessor had intended to preside. Two cases in particular were presented for examination. One was a question of the sudden curé of the youthful Adelaide Joly, and the other, that of little Leo Roussat. The latter, after a violent attack of epilepsy, in the year 1862, had to be carried to the grave of the late curé. One of his arms hung crippled at his side; his power of speech was gone, and his breathing so difficult that he was unable to retain the saliva in his mouth. After a short time spent in prayer at the grave of the curé he was removed. The hand formerly crippled was now able to give alms to the poor and the boy recovered the use of his limbs and walked about. At the conclusion of the novena he was able to speak without further trouble.
In Feb., 1861, the girl Adelaide, owing to a malignant swelling of the arm, had been given up as incurable by the doctors in the Lyons hospital. Then one of her relatives who possessed a piece of linen, which had belonged to the curé of Ars, laid it upon the affected arm. In prayer they besought the intercession of the venerable servant of God to obtain relief for the suffering girl. To the astonishment of the doctors the swelling was suddenly reduced in a few hours and the arm was restored to its normal condition.
After the counsel of cardinals had pronounced a favorable opinion in respect to the miraculous nature of these cures, a papal decree, dated Feb. 21st, 1904, declared these facts sufficiently established to justify the beatification of the venerable man.
The Holy Father himself gave unrestrained expression to the joy which he felt when he was enabled to admit into the ranks of the blessed one who, according to his own words, had been for many years a shining example to him.
