ST. JOHN VIANNEY AND HIS STUDIES UNDER
THE "AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT"

Last month we began to scratch the surface of the life of St. John Vianney and we left off with his leaving home to begin his studies for the priesthood.  However, I feel that before we continue learning more about the life of this saint we should step back and take a quick look at the era which St. John was born into because as we shall subsequently see it has a bearing on his priestly mission.

As I have previously stated John Vianney was three years old when the French Revolution broke – out.  This Revolution was to be a child born of the age of man that has come to be known as the “Age of Enlightenment”.  Now, let’s try to understand this age.

The Age of Enlightenment is the broad term that is given to a primarily intellectual movement, which began in the eighteenth century.  In essence the movement held the belief that the most reliable guide to knowledge was not faith or authority but rather human reason.  Now on the surface there should be very little conflict between the movement and the Church because the Church has traditionally held that faith and reason are to act in concert but the opposite proved to true.  Many proponents of the movement saw the Church as not only outdated but an obstacle, stifling man’s ability to reason on his own.  The old order was to be done away with because the age of “Man and Reason” had arrived.  In France this philosophy was to give rise to the Revolution with its cry of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, noble ideals that somehow ran amuck in the French Revolution, which began to devour its own. It is of interest to note that our very own Revolution has its origin in the Age of Enlightenment but where the French sought to divest their revolt of the Divine our Founding Fathers embraced the Divine as the author of the rights of man.

With this brief historical background let us continue with our study of the life of St. John Vianney.

Entering the “presbytery-school” in the neighboring village of Ecully at the age of twenty, John Vianney, it was quickly discovered, was not a gifted student.  He struggled with his studies especially with Latin so much so that his teachers held very little hope for him as a future priest.  Being the spiritual man that he was John undertook a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. John Francis Regis to ask the saints’ intercession.  His studies improved little but a new and more ominous cloud arose on the horizon that would make his school woes seem miniscule… 

Read More about St. John Vianney:

St. John Vianney - Patron Saint of Parochial Clergy