Winona-Rochester’s Bishop Robert Barron asked for St. John Vianney’s intercession on his Aug. 4 feast day.

“St. John Vianney, pray for us!” Barron tweeted recently. 

St. John Vianney was born in 1786 to a Catholic family that would often spend time caring for the poor in their community, Catholic.org said. When he was still very young, he lived through the terror phase of the French Revolution. That was a time when priests and others who were religious were executed if they worked in the open. Many conducted their work in secret, giving Vianney reason to view priests as heroes. During this time he continued his religious education, taught by nuns whose convents had been taken away from them. 

St. John Vianney later determined he wanted to join the priesthood, Franciscan Media said. It was a challenge for him, as he had received little formal education and often struggled with seminary studies, especially the Latin lectures. Although he almost gave up, Vianney tried private tutoring in a final effort and eventually achieved his dream of being ordained a priest. 

As a priest, Vianney was known for his devotion to the Virgin Mary and St. Philomena, and he was passionate about the Sacrament of Reconciliation; a Britannica report said. He was renowned as a confessor and would spend 12 to 15 hours each day hearing confessions. From 1845 until his death in 1859, as many as 20,000 people would travel each year to Ars to meet Vianney and confess to him.

St. John Vianney is the patron saint of parish priests.