Hail, saintly priest and founder of two religious congregations

"Fr. Peter Julian Eymard" - Auguste Rodin

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Peter Julian Eymard (1811 AD – 1868 AD).   Peter Julian Eymard was born in the diocese of Grenoble to a poor family, and entered the novitiate of the Oblates of Mary in 1829 but had to withdraw owing to poor health.  In 1831, he entered the seminary of Grenoble, and was ordained in 1834, but soon joined the Marist Fathers.  Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament was central to St. Peter's spiritual life, and he particularly strove to ensure that poor children made their first Holy Communion.  St. Peter Eymard rose to provincial of the Marists, but left to found his own congregation, the Society of the Blessed Sacrament.  In 1858 he founded the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, an order of contemplative nuns.   The influence of the Jansenist heresy was powerful in France at the time, and St. Peter himself felt its effects.  Throughout his life, he was troubled by his inability to achieve inner perfection. However, St. Peter helped combat Jansenism by urging the faithful to partake of Communion frequently, a practice which was confirmed by Pope Saint Pius X

In 1862, the great sculptor Auguste Rodin entered the Blessed Sacrament order as a lay brother.  The disconsolate Rodin had recently suffered the loss of his beloved sister, and in his sorrow had decided to abandon his art.  St. Peter Julian Eymard counselled Rodin to return to sculpture, which Rodin soon did.  During his time in the Blessed Sacrament community, Rodin executed the bust of St. Peter Julian Eymard shown above.  The saint did not care for the bust, particularly the swirling mephistophelian tufts of hair at the temples.  The bust was put into storage, and not displayed again for almost 60 years.

The Church of St. Jean Baptiste in Manhattan contains a shrine to St. Peter Julian Eymard at which the humerus bone from the saint's right arm is displayed.

St. Peter Julian Eymard, pray for us.