Today is the feast of Saint Peter Julian Eymard. His Eucharistic retreats given to an order of sisters and a women’s lay sodality in France fill eight volumes. We published one of his most exquisite Christmas sermons “Mary at Bethlehem” on our website here. The following eulogium is a From the Housetops introduction to that sermon.
Saint Peter Julian Eymard (1811-1868) was born at La Mure, a little town in the diocese of Grenoble, France. His entire life from his infancy to his death was a perpetual hymn of praise in honor of the Blessed Eucharist. He was so inflamed with love for the most august Sacrament that hardly a sentence in all his writings is not filled with overflowing thoughts on this Magnum Donum, this Great Gift of God. Never has anyone spoken or written with such holy insight into this great mystery. Who was it that set this heart so on fire? He tells us himself: “The Most Blessed Virgin Mary strengthened this affection in me. She Herself gave me Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament.”
When ordained to the priesthood, Father Eymard worked with unquenchable zeal in spreading devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and organizing acts of reparation for all the sacrilege and neglect which the world paid to our Hidden Savior, our Emmanuel. He was responsible for the institution of various societies dedicated to this purpose and, after suffering continual trails, he crowned his efforts with the formation of a new religious order known as the Priests of the Blessed Sacrament. He was also responsible for the establishment of the Feast of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament on May 13.
