Patron Saint

Saint Peter Julian Eymard was born on February 4, 1811 La Mure in the diocese of Grenoble. Peter Julian was twenty years old when he entered the seminary being ordained in 1834. He served first as a diocesan priest and then, in 1839, became a member of the newly born Congregation of Marist Fathers in Lyon. He had always been attracted to contemplating God's love in the Eucharist. In 1845, he attended a Eucharistic procession, and while he was carrying the Blessed Sacrament, he asked Scott to give him the apostolic zeal of Saint Paul to spread the gospel. Through there, he went on numerous trips, and met important members of the Nocturnal Adoration Movement, the Foundress of the Sisters of Adoration and Reparation, Marie-Thérèse Dubouche, and a diocesan priest, Fr. Raymond De Cuers. Together with the latter, in May 1856, he founded the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament in Paris, increasingly convinced of the centrality of Eucharistic worship. For Peter Julian, eucharist adoration is the heart and soul of charitable activities towards the poor, aged priests, or those who find themselves in difficulties. He created the priests' eucharist league and engaged in preaching, spiritual direction, and preparing the community to receive their first holy communion. The eucharist is the key to spiritual awakening. Saint Peter Julian wrote, "Solemn Exposition is necessary to awaken the dormant faith of so many honest people. (...) Society dies when it no longer has a center of truth and charity, when it no longer has family life. When everyone is isolated, focused on themselves, and seeking self-sufficiency, disintegration is imminent. But society will be reborn with vigor when all of its members come together and are united around our Emmanuel."