In the last two weeks, we looked at the lives of a pope and a bishop who had great devotion to the Holy Eucharist. This week we are going to look at the life of a priest who dedicated his life proclaiming devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament—-St. Peter Julian Eymard (1811-1869).

From the time he was a baby, Peter Julian’s mother took him with her on her daily visits to the Blessed Sacrament. Some of Peter Julian’s first memories were of being in front of the golden monstrance.

As a boy, Peter Julian heard a visiting Carmelite mentioned that friends never pass one another without speaking. Peter Julian reasoned that it is rude to pass by the Blessed Sacrament without visiting and talking to Jesus. Since Jesus is there, everyone should go to Him.

Peter Julian’s road to the priesthood was not easy. His family was poor and his father was reluctant to give consent to his choice of the priesthood.

In 1829, impressed by a preacher of the Oblates of Mary, his father allowed Peter Julian to become novice of that order. Peter Julian studied too hard to overcome his deficiency in Latin that he ruined his health and was close to death. He prayed God to allow him to offer at least one Mass as a priest before his death, and God granted him the recovery of his health.

After his recovery, Peter Julian entered the diocesan seminary to continue his studies. He was ordained a priest at the age of twenty-three on July 20, 1834.

As a parish priest, Father Eymard was remembered by parishioners as a good and dedicated priest who spent a great deal of time praying before the Blessed Sacrament. One mentioned that he spent as much time in church as in the rectory.

Feeling a call within a call, Father Eymard sought his bishop’s permission to become a religious in the Marist congregation. He was with the Marists for seventeen years (from 1839 to 1856).

As a Marist, Father Eymard was an outstanding organizer of lay societies, a zealous educator and preacher. He also served as provincial for the congregation.

Father Eymard preached Eucharistic devotions with success, and he promoted the Forty Hour Devotion (a special forty-hour period of continuous prayer made before the Blessed Sacrament in solemn exposition).

Father Eymard realized that every mystery of the Faith had a religious order dedicated to it, but not the mystery of the Real Presence. He felt inspired to found a religious community whose main purpose is to adore the Blessed Sacrament. His Marists superiors willing released him to undertake this work, and he received permission of the pope to found a new congregation.

There were numerous difficulties in founding a new congregation—–lack of money, lack of vocations, oppositions from civil authorities and from religious authorities. However, Father Eymard trusted that if God wanted the work, it would be done. Eventually the congregation began to flourish.

In additional to the congregation of male religious, Father Eymard also founded an order of contemplative nuns, the Priests’ Eucharistic League for parish priests, and the People’s Eucharistic League for lay people.

Father Eymard died on August 1, 1869. He was beatified in 1925 and was canonized on December 9, 1962.

In one of his letters, Father Eymard wrote, “Be the apostle of the divine Eucharist, like a flame which enlightens and warms, like the angel of his heart who will go to proclaim him to those who don’t know him and will encourage those who love him and are suffering.”