Saint Who?
Saints Who Promoted Eucharistic Devotion
Saint Peter Julian Eymard
Priest and founder († 1868) Feast: August 2
“Jesus Eucharistic is a conqueror…. He wants to subject the universe to his gentle sway.” As a little boy, Peter Eymard disappeared from home, only to be discovered at church, standing on a stool, leaning on the tabernacle. “It’s because I listen, and I hear him better up here,” he explained. Peter became a priest and entered the Marists.
During a Corpus Christi procession, he discerned a call to “preach nothing but Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ Eucharistic.” He left the Marists to establish a specifically Eucharistic congregation, which was approved by Pope Pius IX (see “Saint Who?” of June 13). Eymard became known as the “apostle of the Eucharist,” calling the faithful to approach God’s supreme gift of love and to give themselves to him in return.
His writings are full of wise counsel for Eucharistic devotion. “When your hour is particularly difficult, rejoice all the more; your love will be greater for its suffering more. It is a privileged hour that will count for two.” And again, “Look upon the hour of adoration assigned to you as an hour in paradise…. Tell yourself, ‘in four hours, in two hours, in one hour, our Lord will give me an audience of grace and love. He has invited me; he is waiting for me; he is longing for me.’” Peter died in 1868 and was canonized in 1962.
Heavenly Father, open us to the transforming
love of the Eucharistic Lord.
