ST. JOHN EUDES Patron Saint of Fallen Women and Prostitutes

St. John Eudes (1601-1680) was born the town of Ri, on a farm in Northern France. He was a parish missionary, who founded two religious communities; he also was a great promoter of the devotion to the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. At the age of 24, he was ordained a priest.

Between 1627 and 1631 he offered to take care of those sickened by the several plagues of that time. At the age of 32, he became a parish missionary and was known for his gifts as a preacher and a confessor. St. John Eudes preached over 100 parish missions, some lasting several months at a time.

After much prayer, St. John Eudes decided to leave the religious community after he realized the greatest need of the time was for seminaries. That year, he founded the Congregation of Jesus and Mary (called the Eudist Fathers), which was devoted to the formation of the clergy by conducting diocesan seminaries. St. John Eudes founded several seminaries in Normandy. He also founded the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge to help abandoned women.

St. John Eudes is known for his writings especially The Ideal Confessor and The Apostolic Preacher. Above all, St. John Eudes taught that Jesus was the source of all holiness and Mary was the example of a Christian life. He died in 1680.


Salutation to the Glory of Mary By St. John Eudes


This salutation was found in a book belonging to St. Margaret Mary after her death, and was promoted faithfully by Fr. Paul of Mall, O.S.B., Belgian Priest [1824-1896]
 
Hail Mary!  Daughter of God the Father, Hail Mary!  Mother of God the Son, Hail Mary!  Spouse of God the Holy Ghost, Hail Mary!  Temple of the Most Blessed Trinity, Hail Mary!  Celestial Rose of the ineffable love of God. Hail Mary!  Virgin pure and humble, of whom the King of Heaven willed to be born and with thy milk to be nourished. Hail Mary!  Virgin of virgins, Hail Mary!  Queen of Martyrs, whose soul a sword transfixed, Hail Mary!  Lady most Blessed! unto whom all power in Heaven and earth is given, Hail Mary!  my Queen and my Mother!  my Life, my Sweetness, and my Hope, Hail Mary!  Mother most Amiable, Hail Mary!  Mother most Admirable, Hail Mary!  Mother of Divine Love, Hail Mary!  IMMACULATE; Conceived without sin! Hail Mary!  Full of Grace!  the Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou among women! And blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, JESUS!
Blessed by thy Spouse, St. Joseph, Blessed by thy Father, St. Joachim, Blessed by thy Mother, St. Anne, Blessed by thy Guardian, St. John, Blessed by thy Holy Angel, St. Gabriel, Glory be to God the Father, who chose thee, Glory be to God the Son, who loved thee, Glory be to God the Holy Ghost, who espoused thee, Glorious Virgin Mary, may all men love and praise thee, Holy Mary, Mother of God! pray for us and bless us, now and at death in the Name of JESUS, thy Divine Son! 
 
The holy Benedictine, Père Paul de Moll, was born in 1824.  His life was spent in great sanctity, in extraordinary virtue, and in working wonders.  Early in his religious life, being at the point of death, Our Blessed Lord with Our Lady, St. Joseph and St. Benedict appeared to him and said: "Be healed! . . .  I will grant all that thou ask of Me for others."  He died at the Abbey of Termonde in 1896, and three years later his body was found intact from corruption.  His Cause is now in Rome.

At each recitation of this prayer so pleasing to Mary, let us offer to her through the hands of Père Paul, one of the Apostate Countries of today, begging her blessing upon it and her intercession for its conversion.

It is requested that all undertake to widely spread and make known this Salutation to the Glory of Mary.

"This Salutation is so beautiful!  Recite it daily.  From her throne in Heaven the Blessed Virgin will bless you, and you must make the sign of the Cross.  Yes! Yes! if only you could see ---- Our Lady blesses you.  I know it."

"Offered for the conversion of a sinner it would be impossible not to be granted." [Père Paul de Moll, O.S.B.]

A Lenten Prayer of St. John Eudes


“O Lord, You have created me for Yourself, to love You and to enjoy You, infinite Good, ineffable Beauty; do not permit me to lose sight of this sublime end toward which I must tend; do not permit me to wander among the wretched satisfactions that vain, feeble creatures can offer me.

“O my Lord, what poor use I have made of creatures! Pardon me, O Lord! Henceforth I do not want to use anything unless it is for Your glory and according to Your holy will, as Your Son Jesus did. O my God, if in the past I have turned aside from You who are my Beginning, my End, and my supreme good; if I have turned toward myself and creatures, preferring their will and mine to Yours, I here and now promise to renounce, entirely and forever the world and myself, and to give myself wholly and forever to You. O my God, I give myself to You as my Beginning; take complete possession of me. May I always abide in You! Be the beginning and end of all my actions. O my God, I give myself to You as my End, my Center, my supreme Good. Draw me to You! Make me tend continually toward You. Be my delight, my glory, my treasure, my all!”


Marian Prayer of St. John Eudes


O Blessed Virgin,

Mother of my God and Saviour, 
I honour and revere you 
in the first moment of your life. 
I honour and revere 
the dispositions of your holy soul, 
an all that took place in you at that time.

You began immediately, 
O holy Virgin, 
to love and glorify God most perfectly, 
and from that first moment 
to the last of your life, 
you did ever love and glorify him more and more. 
As for me, in spite of all the years 
I have been in this world, 
I have not yet begun to love 
and serve him as I should.

O Mother of mercy, 
beg your divine Son to have mercy on me. 
Atone for my failings, 
offering Him on my behalf 
all the love 
and glory you ever gave Him, 
to satisfy for my neglect 
in loving and glorifying Him. 
Grant that I may share 
in your surpassing love for him, 
and in the fidelity of that great eternal love. 
Pray for me, 
that He may give me the grace to begin, 
at least now, 
to love Him perfectly, 
and that all that shall take place 
during this year, 
and all my life, 
may be consecrated to His glory and your honour.

O angels, and saints of Jesus Christ, 
pray for me, 
that our loving Saviour may give me new grace 
and new love for him, 
to devote this year and my whole life, 
purely and solely to the service of His glory and love.

Prayer to Saint John Eudes

O God, Who, to rightly promote devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, hast wonderfully inflamed blessed John Thy confessor, and through him hast willed to assemble new families in Thy Church; grant, we beseech Thee, that we may both venerate his pious merits and be edified by the examples of his virtues. Through the same Jesus Christ Thy Son Our Lord Who livest and reignest with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

Prayer Of Saint John Eudes to the Sacred Heart of Jesus


Oh, how good and delightful it is to dwell in the Heart of Jesus!

Thy Heart, O good Jesus, is a precious treasure, a precious pearl
which we have found by digging the field of Thy Body.

Who will cast aside this pearl? Nay, rather I will give all I have,
I will exchange all my thoughts and desires and purchase it.

I will cast all my care on the Heart of the Lord Jesus and He will
provide for me without fail. I will adore in this temple,
this Holy of Holies, this Ark of the Testament, and I will praise the name
of the Lord, saying with David, "I have found my heart that I may pray
to my God. And I have found the heart of my King, my Brother, my Friend,
the benign Jesus, and why shall I not adore?" Assuredly I shall pray.

For His Heart is mine. I will say it boldly, for Christ is my Head,
is not what belongs to my Head mine? Therefore as the eyes of my corporal
head are truly my eyes, so is my spiritual heart my heart.

Therefore, it is well with me: truly I have but one Heart with Jesus
and what wonder that there should be but one heart with the multitude of believers.

Feast Day: August 19

ST. JOHN EUDES Patron Saint of Fallen Women and Prostitutes