Saint John Eudes
Doctor of the Church ?

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Editorial

Both the Congregation of Jesus and Mary and the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd because they possess a precious spiritual treasure that benefits the whole Church, have introduced the Cause of their Founder Saint John Eudes (1601-1680) for a Doctorate. His teachings are contained in the thirteen volumes of his Complete Works (cf. Presentation booklet).

We believe that the way developed by Saint John Eudes to accompany the Christian experience is likely to support the life of the faithful and the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ in our world today. John Eudes appears at the dawn of modern times, a moment in history when the world is going through profound changes in the manner of perceiving reality and living up to it. Suffice to recall the many disturbances relating to the XVIIth Century with Copernicus, Descartes, the birth and development of modern science, the discovery by Western explorers of distant continents, the expansion of missions towards Canada and Cochin-China.

This is also the time when is brought forth the resolute passage towards the inner self, a migration towards the heart regarded as the fundamental referent of one’s being, the focal point where the quest of truth is henceforth settled. Within this context, Saint John Eudes and many of his contemporaries will have strived to discover the best manner to express and support the Christian way of life: Bérulle, Olier, Vincent of Paul as well as several other great spiritual figures of holiness will have become promoters of a new evangelization. At the dawn of the XXth Century, Fr. Bremond named this spiritual and apostolic renewal the French School of Spirituality. It has stamped a lasting and fruitful mark on the universal Church.

We wish that the doctrine of Saint John Eudes be better offered to the faithful of our time, since our desire is to share the precious heritage he has conveyed. May the whole Church benefit from the inspiration that illuminated the nature, the deeds and the works of our Founder. May the process of recognition attain its end for the greater glory of God and the good of the Church.

Jean-Michel Amouriaux, Supérieur Général

ON THE PATH TO A DOCTORATE

Why saint John Eudes “Doctor of the Church” ?

From time immemorial, the Church has offered the faithful the witness of men and women who can guide them in their following of Christ, in their understanding of the faith and in their Christian life. Over the centuries, the Church has granted the title of "Doctor of the Church" to great men and women saints whose life and teaching constitute a richness and a reference for the life of all the baptized. In the last few decades, figures like St. Catherine of Siena, St. Therese of Lisieux, and St. John of Avila and St. Hildegard of Bingen have been declared "Doctors of the Church."

The Eudists, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity and the Good Shepherd Sisters, as well as the women congregations who are heirs to St. John Eudes, propose to the French Bishops Conference to support the Cause of St. John Eudes as a Doctor of the Church.

Having conducted numerous consultations in the Church in different countries, the Eudists, following the example of congregations of the same family spiritually, no doubt wishes to submit to the discernment of the French diocese. Through his own missionary experience, his preaching, and his concern for the formation of priests, John Eudes was able to work for the renewal of Christian life in difficult times of rupture and change. In particular, through the powerful image of the Heart, he opened a concrete spiritual path where each baptized person, following Mary, is invited to "form Jesus in him". The life, witness, writings and legacy of St. John Eudes -missionary priest and teacher of Christian life-, in the Catholic renewal of the XVIIᵉ century, are, in many ways, part of the issues of a new evangelization and a renewal of the baptismal life.

Besides the recognized merits of St. John Eudes at the time of his canonization, his pastoral practice and teachings - to make "Christ live and reign" in every baptized person - as well as his edification - were also recognized.

Echoes of the conversation with the Holy Father

Bishop Luc Crepy of Le Puy-en-Velay met personally for half an hour with Pope Francis on Saturday, December 3, 2016.

© L’Osservatore Romano

The purpose of this private audience was to discuss St. John Eudes and the possibility by the Church of declaring him a Doctor of the Church. In fact, the Bishop of Le Puy is postulator of the cause of the doctorate. He was accompanied by the Superior General of the Eudists, Fr. Camilo Bernal, as well as Sister Marie-Françoise Le Brizaut, a Sister of Our Lady of Charity, a congregation founded by St. John Eudes and of which she was Superior General.

During this meeting, they spoke to the Pope about St. John Eudes, his posterity and his current influence. They also explained to the Pope the reasons why the spirituality and doctrine of St. John Eudes could be better known in the Church and bring their richness to all.

John Eudes (1601-1680)
May he destroy in us what is opposed to mercy!

John Eudes is a passionate Christ-follower. At a very young age, it seems, he became aware that he had to conform himself to the dead and risen Christ.... And to live only in God, with Jesus Christ. Or, to put it another way, at the source of love... where Mary already lives.

John Eudes was part of the second generation of the Catholic Reformation in France. Berulle, François de Sales, Vincent de Paul invented the principles for the application of the Council of Trent in France. John Eudes was to root in the people what they had begun.
His spirituality was first of all baptismal: he wanted Jesus to continue and accomplish his life in each Christian. Baptismal, his spirituality will be open to the laity, men and women.

He supports and accompanies the great lay movements of the time: Company of the Blessed Sacrament, Hermitage. Like many saints of his time, he had profound spiritual exchanges with some women, such as Laurence de Budos or Marie des Vallées... He also resolutely committed himself to the defense of women who would later be called prostitutes.

His spiritual life blossomed in a very missionary apostolic activity. He cries out "Fire, doctors!", complaining about those who remain in the Sorbonne instead of going to announce the Gospel. He is a missionary at heart. He speaks to the great, but he loves the small. He is there when a plague occurs, even if it means living in a barrel, he travels the countryside preaching "missions".

But, for all that, he tried to give himself the means to achieve his ambition of making people love Christ and he founded a congregation to train priests, he preached, he wrote books, he composed liturgical offices...

And, always, he contemplates the mercy of God. It was in contemplating the heart of Mary that John Eudes discovered the heart of Jesus... and the love that exists between the two.

At a time when Jansenism seemed to install a pessimistic vision of the human heart, John Eudes was sure that the human heart is the "natural" place of God's love.

Mgr Michel Dubost, c.j.m.
Bishop of Évry-Corbeil-Essonnes

1

Formation

Jean Eudes was born on November 14, 1601 (the same year as Louis XIII), in Ri, near Argentan, in Normandy. After completing his humanities at the Jesuit College in Caen, he entered the newly formed Society of the Oratory of Jesus of France on March 23, 1623, in the Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris, where he was welcomed by the founder, Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle. Ordained a priest on December 20, he celebrated his first Mass on Christmas Day, the 25th of that month, before continuing his theological studies in the Oratorian community of Aubervilliers.

OUR DESIGN

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2

Foundation of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary

Returning to Normandy in 1627, he was first sent to the region of Vrigny (diocese of Sées), which was affected by the plague. He escaped the epidemic and discovered the material and spiritual abandonment in which the countryside lived. From this observation, he drew a priority for his apostolate: if we want to rechristianize society, we must train priests capable of running a rural parish or preaching popular missions. Thus, meeting the directives of the Council of Trent concerning the formation of the clergy, he left, on March 19, 1643, the community of the Oratory of Caen, of which he was the superior, to open a seminary in that same city. To this end, he gathered seven experienced priests, missionaries capable of becoming trainers, and founded, on March 25 of the same year, with the approval of the bishop of Bayeux, a society of priests dedicated to the training of seminarians and clergy as well as to popular preaching in the parishes: the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, known as the Eudists. From Caen, the Eudist seminaries spread, during the lifetime of their founder, to Coutances, Lisieux, Rouen, Évreux and Rennes.

OUR DESIGN

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3

Foundation of the Order of Our Lady of Charity

As early as 1634, John Eudes was thinking of establishing a "refuge" in Caen for "repentant girls", that is, women who wanted to leave libertinism or prostitution. This was done in 1641, thanks to the assistance of members of the Company of the Blessed Sacrament, with the creation of Notre-Dame du Refuge4. Some time later, he decided to entrust this work to nuns, and created, not without the assistance of the Visitandines of Caen, an institute, which would become the Order of Our Lady of Charity, recognized on February 8, 1651, by the Bishop of Bayeux, Mgr Molé, and by a papal bull of Alexander VII, on January 2, 1666. During the founder's lifetime, the Breton monasteries of Rennes (1673), Hennebont and Vannes (1676) were established in addition to the one in Caen.

OUR DESIGN

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4

Preaching

By the time of his death on August 19, 1680 in Caen, John Eudes had preached one hundred and ten missions between 1632 and 1676, ninety of which were in Normandy, mainly in the diocese of Coutances. The purpose of these popular missions was to rekindle the faith or Catholic fervor in the parishes. Each one lasted about a month and a half. The mornings were devoted to preaching, the afternoons to catechism or conferences. In addition to these activities, the missionary confessed the population.

John Eudes also preached before the Queen Mother Anne of Austria, who appreciated him very much. As for Louis XIV, after having supported the foundation of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, he suspected the saint of hostility to his Gallican policy, between 1674 and 16797. Finally, it is also worth noting the liturgical and literary activity of John Eudes in favor of the cult of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary: in 1648, during a mission to Autun, he had the Mass and the Office of the Heart of Mary celebrated, with the approval of the bishop, for which he had composed the structure; he did the same in Caen and in four other of his seminaries, in 1672, for the Mass and the Office of the Heart of Jesus.

OUR DESIGN

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5

Worship

After his death, the body of John Eudes was buried in the church of the Très-Saints-Cœurs-de-Jésus-et-Marie of the Eudist seminary in Caen. In 1810, the bones of John Eudes were transferred to Notre-Dame-de-la-Gloriette. Since March 6, 1884, they have been in the crypt under the south transept of this former Jesuit church.

John Eudes was beatified by Pius X in 1909, and canonized by Pius XI in 1925. His feast day is celebrated on August 19.

On November 8, 2014 at the plenary session of the French Bishops' Conference, Bishop Michel Dubost announced the conference's support for the cause of St. John Eudes as Doctor of the Church. In December 2016, Bishop Luc Crepy of Le Puy-en-Velay met with Pope Francis in a private audience to support this cause.

OUR DESIGN

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Source: Wikipedia Main dates

Christ, center of our life

In imitation of this heavenly Father whom we are to follow and imitate as our Father, Jesus is to be the sole object of our mind and heart. We are to look to and love all things in him, and we are to look to and love nothing but him in all things.

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The Christian life

Jesus, God and man together, being all in all, according to the divine oracle of his great Apostle [...] that he may be our life, our sanctification, our power, our treasure, our glory and our all.

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The baptismal doctrine

The three divine Persons are present in Holy Baptism in a special way. The Father is there, begetting his Son in us, and begetting us in his Son, that is, giving new being and new life to his Son in us, and giving us new being and new life in his Son.

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Lectionary of Congregation of Jesus and Mary

The Vow of Martyrdom, manuscript of Saint John Eudes, signed in his blood, dated March 25, 1637.

- preserved in the House of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd of Cormelles-le-Royal, Calvados

Manuscrits conservés

  1. The Statutes and Constitutions of the Congregation of Jesus and Mary; in-40 of about 600 pages. (This work was printed in 1875, but with modifications deemed necessary by the General Assemblies, or dictated by the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, which approved it on June 18, 1874.
  2. The Directoire with the explanation for the Divine Office and other ceremonies of the Monasteries of Our Lady of Charity, according to that of the Religious of the Visitation; opuscule of 100 pages in-40. (This manuscript was used to write the Coutumier et Cérémonial de N.-D. de Charité, which was printed in Caen, first in the format in-80 in 1682, then in in-40 square in 1728).
  3. Memoriale Beneficiorum Dei, or the principal favors I have received from God through his Son Our Lord Jesus Christ, and through his most holy Mother; in-40 of 50 pages.
  4. Various pamphlets: The testament of the Venerable Father Eudes; - Vow or Elevations to Jesus as a victim; - Covenant contract with the Blessed Virgin; - Letter to the Blessed Virgin; - Vow of obedience and stability; - Vow of chastity for a worldly person, vow of martyrdom, etc.
  5. Letters or fragments of letters, one hundred and fifty-six in number.
  6. Letters: 10 unpublished letters published in 1958 in: Berthelot du Chesnay C., Saint Jean Eudes. Textes choisis. Namur, Eds. du Soleil Levant, 1958. Among these letters, seven are addressed to Mother Mechtilde (Catherine de Bar).
  7. La vie admirable de Marie des Vallées et des choses prodigieuses qui se sont passées en elle, 1 vol. in-40. Unfortunately incomplete copy, found at the library of the Université-Laval de Québec and which was published in 2013 (Tome XIII). This is not strictly speaking a book by St. John Eudes, but a collection of notes that he had written under the dictation of the pious girl, and put in order to report to the bishop of Coutances who had entrusted him with her guidance. He never intended to publish this writing, but it is because of the infidelity of his secretary who made copies of it which are doubtless inaccurate. 

The complete works

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COMPLETE WORKS OF SAINT JOHN EUDES

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Postulators of the case

Mgr Luc Crépy, c.j.m

Mgr Luc Crepy, Eudist, Bishop of Puy-en-Velay (France), is the postulator of the cause of Saint John Eudes, Doctor of the Church.

His work consists in bringing the theological, spiritual and pastoral elements necessary for the reflection and the decision of the Church concerning the possibility for Saint John Eudes to be declared Doctor of the Church. He works in close collaboration with Sister Marie-Françoise Le Brizaut, Sister of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, vice-postulator.

Soeur Marie-Françoise Le Brizaut, r.b.p.

Sister Marie-Françoise Le Brizaut, a religious of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, was the vice-postulator for the cause of St. John Eudes, Doctor of the Church.

She worked in close collaboration with Bishop Luc Crepy, postulator.

Sister Marie-Françoise Le Brizaut passed away on March 28, 2019.

Congrégation de Jésus et Marie
Maison Générale - Casa Generalizia
Via dei Querceti, 15,
00184 Roma RM, Italia

cjm@eudistes.org