August 4: The Feast of Saint Jean Vianney

The Papal Artifacts’ Collection is primarily dedicated to artifacts connected to the papacy.  Individual popes, their biographies and multiple items belonging to them, including first and second class relics, make up the majority of this Collection.  But that isn’t all it is.

Father Kunst has a deep devotion to the saints as can be readily seen in viewing the Saints & Blesseds section of this site. We invite you to visit Papal History/Saints & Blesseds to view the many canonized and beatified men and women who make up this section of the Collection.

Saint Jean Vianney is one of them.

And, on this very date, in 1859, the Curé of Ars, Jean Baptiste Vianney, died in his village in France, age 73.

Vianney’s beatification and canonization were among the most rapid in modern times, before the reforms in these processes by Pope John Paul II.  Pius X beatified him in 1905, and on May 31, 1925 he was canonized a saint by Pius XI.

 Breviary:

Father Kunst purchased this breviary at auction in France. The person owning it lived close to Ars, Jean Vianney’s home. Her great grandmother had recently died and this breviary was found among her belongings.

A note came with it from a mortician who said he had had it in his possession since 1918. No one knows its origin before that time.

When a priest or deacon is ordained they vow to pray faithfully the liturgy of the hours. It is one of the main signs of priesthood. At the time of Jean Vianney the liturgy of the hours consisted of eight volumes. Currently it is four volumes.

Both during his lifetime and after his death it is known that people would steal his breviaries as relics, so we can appreciate that items belonging to him were taken. This breviary may have been one of those taken.

This volume is signed, Jean Marie Vianney, Cure d’Ars.  It is one of three items in the collection that are Father Kunst’s favorites.

The reliquary presented here contains the following relics of the Cure d’Ars:  A handkerchief, cassock, confessional chair (wing chair), quilts, mattress, blood, muscles, hair, table napkin (or towel), a medal, and a bandage or dressing for a wound.

The very large blue cloth in the reliquary is itself a relic and is from the curtains of his confessional.

(The medal is pictured in the 3rd picture.)

The reliquary is still sealed at the back and is in very good condition.

St. Jean Vianney

How Good It Is to Love You

My Jesus, from all eternity you were pleased to give yourself to us in love. And you planted within us a deep spiritual desire that can only be satisfied by yourself. I may go from here to the other end of the world, from one country to another, from riches to greater riches, from pleasure to pleasure, and still I shall not be content. All the world cannot satisfy the immortal soul. It would be like trying to feed a starving man with a single grain of wheat. We can only be satisfied by setting our hearts, imperfect as they are, on you. We are made to love you; you created us as your lovers. It sometimes happens that the more we know a neighbor, the less we love him. But with you it is quite the opposite. The more we know you, the more we love you. Knowledge of you kindles such a fire in our souls that we have no energy left for worldly desires. My Jesus, how good it is to love you. Let me be like your disciples on Mount Tabor, seeing nothing else but you. Let us be like two bosom friends, neither of whom can ever bear to offend the other.  –Saint Jean Vianney

St. Jean Vianney