St. John Vianney

A French peasant who barely scraped through seminary because of his struggles with Latin, Vianney was sent to the obscure village of Ars in 1818 and stayed for forty-one years. By the end of his life some 100,000 pilgrims a year were coming to him, and he sat in the confessional sixteen to eighteen hours a day. He is the patron of parish priests.

His sermons were simple and direct, focused on the love of God and the horror of sin. He was tormented for years by what he called the "grappin" — a demonic presence that shook his bed, set fire to his curtains, and filled his room with unearthly noise. He bore it all with dry humor, remarking that the devil was simply angry at losing souls.

Vianney tried repeatedly to flee Ars for the silence of a monastery, but each time was brought back by the crowds who depended on him. He died on August 4, 1859, worn to nothing by penance and labor. Pope Pius XI canonized him in 1925 and declared him the patron of all parish priests.