St John Eudes

John was born into a farming family and he helped his father on the farm until he was old enough to become a priest. He always wanted to be a priest but his parents tried to convince him to get married. After lots of talking, John finally convinced his parents to let him go to the seminary and he joined a group of priests called the congregation of the Oratory. Soon after he became a priest, there were very bad diseases that started spreading throughout France, these diseases were called plagues and many people died because of them. Fr. John worked very hard to help the people that were sick and those who had lost their families because of the plagues. Fr. John also became a very good preacher of the Gospel and many people went to him for confession. He helped women who were in trouble and started a home for them to go to for help. He left the Oratorians and started his own group of priests called the Congregation of Jesus and Mary. His congregation worked hard to build good seminaries all over France to teach men to be good priests and they were also committed to preaching the Gospel really well so people would get to know Jesus. The group of women that he helped also started a convent with the help of Fr. John; they were called the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge. Throughout his work as a priest he helped bring people closer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Holy Heart of Mary, creating prayers and celebrating mass to help people get closer to the hearts of Jesus and Mary.