Curé d'Ars marks saint's 150th anniversary

Ars-sur-Formans is a village settled in the beautiful landscape of the Val de Saône, in France. With a current population of approximately 1200 people, its destiny was radically changed by the Curé d'Ars.Its shrine became an important destination for pilgrims in France and from all around the world. Pilgrimages began while Jean Marie Vianney was still alive and, before he died, the number pilgrims that visited every year had reached 100,000. He was canonized in 1925 by Pope Pius XI, who proclaimed him the patron saint of parish priests.For Fr. Antoine Hardy, the current curé (or pastor) of Ars, the center of the pilgrimage is the encounter with the saint in the Chapel of the Heart, where a highly symbolic relic is preserved.It is a very significant relic for us because it is not a finger or an eye; it is truly the heart of the Curé dArs filled with love, the heart of a pastor filled with love for all his parishioners. And we must try to make our hearts beat in harmony with the heart of St. Jean Marie Vianney, which was very close to the heart of Jesus.At the beginning of the 20th century, the body of the saint was exhumed. Since then, his body has remained intact. It was exposed in a reliquary with his face coated with a layer of wax a manner worthy of the saints spirituality given the sobriety that characterized his life. Here also remains the history presbytery that now accommodates a museum.This presbytery may be considered unimportant; it is obviously less important than the church. However, it did witness a spiritual struggle. There are passages struggles with the devil that he called 'grapples' that occurred within these walls. We perceive that it is a place of poverty, meditation and spiritual struggle.During his visit in 1986, John Paul II said that to edify the Church, this is what the Curé d'Ars did in this village. A century after his death, the Church of Our Lady of Mercy was built a modern structure with the capacity to welcome more than 1500 people. Current estimates indicate that 400,000 thousand pilgrims visit the shrine every year.

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