Saint John Eudes, Priest

John Eudes was born in 1601 in Normandy, the son of a farmer, and joined the French Oratory, being ordained in 1625. During outbreaks of plague he nursed the sick, and in 1627, so as not to carry the disease to his brothers, he lived for a time in a large cask in a field. For decades he preached parish missions across Normandy. In 1641 he founded a community to shelter women leaving prostitution, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, and in 1643 the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, the Eudists, to run seminaries for the training of priests. He wrote some of the first liturgical texts for feasts of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. He died at Caen on 19 August 1680 and was canonized in 1925.