Saint John Eudes was born in France, November 14,
1601. He was an exemplary child and was extolled as one
of the most brilliant students ever to attend the Jesuit
College at Caen.
As a priest he was full of zeal for the salvation of
souls. He worked valiantly among his countrymen and
became known as one of the greatest missionaries of his
day. Travelling throughout France, he taught the great
truths of the faith and succeeded in making a host of
conversions.
He founded the Congregation of the “Priests of Jesus
and Mary” and the Congregation of “Sisters of Our Lady
of Charity.” The main purpose of the former was the
direction of seminaries and the religious instruction of the
people through missions… St. Eudes dedicated the
seminary chapels of Caen & Coutances to the Sacred
Hearts. The feast of the Holy Heart of Mary was
celebrated for the first time in 1648, and that of the Sacred
Heart of Jesus in 1672, each as a double of the first class
with an octave. The Mass and Office proper to these were
composed by Saint Eudes, who thus had the honor of
preceding the Blessed Margaret Mary in establishing the
devotion to the Sacred Hearts. For this reason, Pope Leo
XIII recognized St. John Eudes as the “Author of the
Liturgical Worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Holy
Heart of Mary”…He died in 1680.
PRAYER: O God, who wondrously inflamed Blessed John,
Thy Confessor, rightly to promote the public worship of
the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and through him
willed to establish new religious families in Thy Church,
grant, we beseech Thee, that we who venerate his merits
may also be taught by the examples of his virtues. Amen.
Lives of the Saints, pgs. 324-325 & NewAdvent.org