August 19 | Saint John Eudes

Welcome, young history buffs and curious minds, to My Daily Saint, the podcast that digs deep into the incredible lives of the saints, those remarkable people who shaped history and continue to inspire us today. Forget dusty old portraits and boring stories. Today, imagine that a deadly, highly contagious plague is tearing through your town. There are no modern hospitals, no antibiotics, and everyone is terrified. Most people are hiding out, staying as far away from the sickness as possible, just praying that the nightmare passes over them.

But out in the middle of a muddy, lonely field, there is a man. He doesn't live in a house. He doesn't even have a tent. He is living inside a giant, empty wooden barrel. Why on earth would he do that? Because he wants to spend every waking hour feeding, nursing, and caring for the horribly sick and dying, but he refuses to pass the deadly disease on to his roommates. Today, we are talking about the man in the barrel, St. John Eudes.

His story begins way back in the year 1601 in Normandy, France. Honestly, John's life was practically a miracle before he even took his very first breath. His parents were hardworking farmers, and they wanted a baby more than anything in the world. However, they were dealing with infertility and were unable to conceive. So, they did what any deeply faithful couple back in the 17th century would do. They went on a pilgrimage. They visited a special Marian shrine to ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to pray for them.

And guess what? Exactly nine months after that trip, John was born. Not only that, but after John finally arrived, his parents ended up having five more children in the years that followed. Talk about a massive answered prayer. As John grew up, he attended a Jesuit school, and after finishing his education, he realized he had a serious calling to seek ordination as a priest. He began his priesthood serving at an oratory, and he quickly became super popular in the area because he was just an incredibly gifted and captivating preacher.

But then, a terrifying plague broke out in his home region of Normandy. Now, a lot of people would run far away from a plague, but John actually traveled back to his hometown to serve the desperate people for two grueling months. But the nightmare followed him. He knows he has to help the sick and the dying, but he also knows that if he sleeps in the rectory every night, he's going to infect all of his fellow priests. So, he dragged a massive wooden barrel out into a field, and he moved in.

That barrel became his house, so he wouldn't get anyone else sick while he tended to the infected. He sacrificed his comfort, his warmth, and a real bed just to safely serve others. Miraculously, John survived the terrible plague. After it passed, he hit the road, traveling the country to preach at parish missions that would last for weeks or even months at a time. During these travels, John noticed a massive problem. The everyday people needed spiritual guidance, but the clergy, the priests themselves, needed just as much training and reform as the people did.

To fix this, John shifted his focus and started a brand new religious community called the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, which people today often just call the Udists. This group worked to open up numerous seminaries where parish priests could finally get the top-notch formation and education they desperately needed.

But John's empathy didn't stop there. He was completely heartbroken by how society treated the outcasts. He noticed that women who were trying to escape a life of prostitution, but instead of getting help, they were being horribly mocked by the public. This sickened him. So, he took action again, creating another religious congregation called the Sisters of Charity of the Refuge, designed specifically to provide a safe, Loving shelter for these vulnerable women. St. John Eudes is appropriately the patron saint of missionaries, as well as the patron of the congregation he founded, the Congregation of Jesus and Mary.

In art, his attributes usually show him holding the Sacred Heart, because John had a profoundly deep devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. While he wasn't the very first person in history to have this devotion, he was the very first person to officially integrate this beautiful spirituality into the liturgical life of the church.

John kept traveling and preaching, even as his health started to decline, until he contracted an illness that finally led to his death on August 19, 1680. Decades later, his incredible life was officially recognized, and he was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1925.

This week, step completely out of your comfort zone to help someone in your life who might feel like an outcast. Put your own social comfort, and maybe even your physical comfort, on the line to be a protector, just like St. John Eudes did. Thank you for joining us on My Daily Saint. We look forward to sharing another incredible story of faith and courage with you tomorrow.