St. John Vianney

Who they were

John Vianney nearly did not make it to ordination. Latin defeated him, examiners failed him, and he was accepted at last mostly on the testimony that he was good. They assigned him to Ars, a village of 230 people nobody wanted, assuming he could do little harm. Within twenty years, a hundred thousand people a year were travelling to that village to confess to him. He sat in the confessional eleven to sixteen hours a day, summer and winter, for decades, and people waited days in line. He slept little, ate less, gave away everything, and tried three times to run away to a monastery, convinced he was failing everyone. He died in Ars at seventy-three, and the Church made the man who could not pass his exams the patron of all parish priests.

Why people turn to St. John Vianney

Priests first, since he is their patron outright. And anyone who suspects they are too slow, too ordinary, or too far behind for what they feel called to do.

How to ask their intercession

Pray for a priest by name. Most have never once been prayed for by name by a parishioner. And for yourself: ask his prayers when the calling feels bigger than the talent, which was his entire biography.