19 August - John Eudes was born on 14 November 1601, in Ri, near Argentan, Normandy. After completing his humanities at the Jesuit College of Caen, he entered the newly founded Society of the Oratory of Jesus of France on March 23, 1623.
He was welcomed by the founder, Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle. Ordained a priest on December 20, he celebrated his first Mass on the 25th of that month, Christmas Day, before continuing his theological studies in the Oratorian community of Aubervilliers.
Returning to Normandy in 1627, he was first sent to the region of Vrigny, which was affected by the plague. He escaped the epidemic and discovered the material and spiritual abandonment in which the countryside lived. From this observation, he drew a priority for his apostolate: if one wanted to re-Christianize society, one had to form priests, capable of running a rural parish or preaching popular missions. Meeting the directives of the Council of Trent concerning the formation of the clergy, he left the community of the Oratory of Caen, of which he was superior, on March 19, 1643, to open a seminary in that same city. For this purpose, he gathered together seven experienced priests, missionaries capable of becoming formators, and founded, on March 25 of the same year, with the approval of the Bishop of Bayeux, a society of priests dedicated both to the formation of seminarians and clergy and to popular preaching in parishes: the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, known as the Eudists. From Caen, during the lifetime of their founder, the Eudist seminaries spread to Coutances, Lisieux, Rouen, Evreux and Rennes.
As early as 1634, John Eudes was thinking of establishing a "refuge" in Caen for "repentant girls", that is to say, women wishing to leave libertine life or prostitution. This was done in 1641, thanks to the assistance of members of the Company of the Blessed Sacrament, with the creation of Notre-Dame du Refuge. Some time later, he decided to entrust this work to nuns, and created, not without the assistance of the Visitandines of Caen, an institute which would become the Order of Our Lady of Charity, recognized on February 8, 1651, by the Bishop of Bayeux, Mgr Molé, and by a papal bull of Alexander VII, on January 2, 1666.
At his death, on 19 August 1680 in Caen, John Eudes will have preached one hundred and ten missions between 1632 and 1676, ninety of which were in Normandy, mainly in the diocese of Coutances. The aim of these popular missions was to rekindle the Catholic faith or fervour in the parishes. Each one lasted about a month and a half. The mornings were devoted to preaching, the afternoons to catechism or conferences. In addition to these activities, the missionary confessed the people.
