Jean Eudes - Biography

Biography

John Eudes, born at Ri, Orne, was a brother of the French historian François Eudes de Nézeray. At the age of fourteen he took a vow of chastity.

After studying with the Jesuits at Caen he joined the Oratorians on 25 March 1623. His masters and models in the spiritual life were Pierre de Bérulle and the mystic Charles de Condren. He was ordained a priest on 20 December 1625 and began his priestly life with heroic labours for the victims of the plague, which was ravaging the country.

Father Eudes became famous as a missionary. He was called by Jean-Jacques Olier "the prodigy of his age".

In 1641 he founded the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge, to provide a refuge for prostitutes who wished to do penance. The society was approved by Pope Alexander VII on 2 January 1666. It later also included a convent which in 1829 influenced Saint Mary Euphrasia Pelletier who established The Good Shepherd Sisters (called also Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd) after Our Lady of Charity.

With the approbation of Cardinal de Richelieu and a great number of others, Father Eudes severed his connection with the Oratory to establish the Congregation of Jesus and Mary (Eudists) for the education of priests and for missionary work. This congregation was founded at Caen on 25 March 1643, and was considered a most important and urgent work.

Father Eudes, during his long life, preached not less than 110 missions, three at Paris, one at Versailles, one at St-Germaine-en-Laye, and the others in different parts of France. Normandy was the principal theatre of his apostolic labours. In 1674 he obtained from Pope Clement X six bulls of indulgences for the Confraternities of the Sacred Heart already erected or to be erected in the seminaries.

Father Eudes dedicated the seminary chapels of Caen and Coutances to the Sacred Hearts. The feast of the Holy Heart of Mary was celebrated for the first time in 1648, and that of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1672, each as a double of the first class with an octave.

The Mass and Office proper to these feasts were composed by Father Eudes.For this reason, Pope Leo XIII, in proclaiming his virtues heroic in 1903, gave him the title of "Author of the Liturgical Worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Holy Heart of Mary".

St. John Eudes taught the mystical unity of the hearts of Jesus and Mary and wrote:

"You must never separate what God has so perfectly united. So closely are Jesus and Mary bound up with each other that whoever beholds Jesus sees Mary; whoever loves Jesus, loves Mary; whoever has devotion to Jesus, has devotion to Mary."

"The most striking characteristic of the teaching of St. John Eudes on Devotion to the Sacred Heart-as indeed of his whole teaching on the spiritual life--is that Christ is always its centre. Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ-per Ipsum, cum Ipso et in Ipso--all devotion and all piety achieves its end.

Since the Sacred Heart of Jesus is God's Love symbolically (though by no means merely metaphorically, figuratively or arbitrarily) expressed, all those acts which belong to strictly divine worship (Cultus latriae) have first place in this devotion. For, God Himself is its object."*

Father Eudes wrote a number of books remarkable for elevation of doctrine and simplicity of style. His principal works are:

• "Le Royaume de Jésus"
• "Le contrat de l'homme avec Dieu par le Saint Baptême"
• "Le Mémorial de la vie Ecclésiastique"; "Le Bon Confesseur"
• "Le Prédicateur Apostolique"
• "Le Cœur Admirable de la Très Sainte Mère de Dieu". This last is the first book ever written on the devotion to the Sacred Hearts.

He died at Caen on 19 August 1680.