Cure d'Ars Today: St. John Vianney

Rutler himself recommends "better" biographies of John Vianney for more comprehensive narration of the plain facts about his life. This book adds the "Rutler dimension", which studies the man's life and its impact on thousands within the context of the Enlightenment and the disruptive forces of the French Revolution. Throughout the book, while the focus is on this uniquely selfless priest, there is meaningful relevance to the a modern world deracinated from its Christian roots and steeped in secularism. This is both biograph and history, but few books of these genre are also inspirational. This is a scholarly book, but extremely engaging and entertaining in both narrative and the philosophical quality of the ideas presented.

Father Rutler has a lyric way of portraying the heroic side of an obscure country priest. If only more people knew about the beauty of priestly service, we would have more priests. Read this book and begin a journey into understanding the priesthood for what it really is. This book is an excellent recommendation for laypeople who do a lot of work with the Church. They will understand their parish life in a much deeper way. Rutler's approach is more spiritual than biographical. Granted, he mentions the famous scenes, but he does not go into precise detail. I don't think he did any new research on Vianney -- what he does is give the Curé a profile "for today". And it's worth the read!

This is an intriguing and pious treatment of St. John Vianney [1786-1859], but the book defies easy categorization. The outline is clearly the life of the mystical French parish priest best known for his extraordinary grace as a confessor, but the author has skillfully set Vianney in the aftermath of the "troubles" of his country--the Revolution, the Gallican Church controversy, Napoleon--while from time to time speculating on Vianney's spirituality and pastoral approaches vis-à-vis the post-Vatican II era. George William Rutler is honest about his feelings toward the Enlightenment. In an extensive appendix he provides an overview of the French Church and its relationships with the succession of governments from Louis XVI and beyond. In Rutler's view the "Daughter of the Church" was hardly the virginal bride, with most of its clergy and bishops nondescript and woefully lacking in vision and piety. Thomas Mores and John Fishers were hard to come by. Vianney's formative years run concurrent with a quarter-century ecclesiastical malaise, most noticeably in France but in actuality through much of Western Europe. Rutler describes Vianney's youth as the age of "the home church," when domestic instruction and prayer carried faithful Frenchmen through a period of persecution, ambivalent priests [or no priests at all, in many circumstances.] He learned to farm but not to read, as Rutler puts it, though his early sense of a priestly calling compelled him to master reading skills, albeit with very modest success. His vocational aspirations were nearly derailed by military draft. For two years Vianney lived underground to avoid conscription. Rutler argues that the Napoleonic cause, poisoned, as it were, with assaults on the lands and the office of the papacy, was beneath the dignity of this pious young man. If there were religious superiors of character in France at this time, Vianney was fortunate to have encountered them in his formative steps to orders. His piety and faith, if not his book learning, seemed have been the deciding factors in his tenuous approval for ordination. Many years later, in my own lifetime, a seminary rector commented to me that "piety comes and goes, stupidity remains forever." Vianney would be the exception to the rule. Once ordained, Vianney would serve a brief and rather successful term as an assistant pastor at Ecully until he received his own parish in Ars. Ars in fact had but one church--and seven saloons. The church had recently served as a shrine to the Goddess of Reason, among other things. If anything the residents of Ars were perplexed to see a pastor who actually cared about ringing the bells, providing instruction, and preparing his sermons. As is often the case, pastoral solicitude was not initially welcomed or understood by a people unbothered by matters of the soul, and episodes of enmity from time to time were not unheard of. But Vianney's gift as a confessor, a trait already noticeable at Ecully, soon beca

This is a very great book, and a true Masterpiece. I was deeply moved by its beauty and depth. Rutler uses language like a great composer without losing the central theme. He adds a new dimension to Saint John Vianney and brings to life the pristine soul of "The Cure D'Ars".

I must agree with a previous reviewer; if you are looking for a biography of St. John Marie Vianney, this is not the book for you. However, if you would like to read about the message and meaning of the Cure's life, how it applies to Christians of his time and Christians today, then this book will provide all you need. If diction alone could convey the truth of a message, this sublime work would be enough to convince any of the truth of Catholicism. As it is, the book conveys spiritual truths through Rutler's lofty prose as a feast for mind and soul. It is not an easy read, and certainly takes some digesting. Nevertheless, it is well worth the read.