On the centenary of the canonization of three French saints, Pope Leo XIV speaks of France’s “Christian heritage,” which “still profoundly permeates [French] culture and remains alive in many hearts.”
By Jean-Benoît Harel
Three saints as role models for navigating the challenges faced by the modern French Church. That’s the idea at the heart of a new letter sent by Pope Leo XIV to the French Bishops’ Conference, stressing the significance of the upcoming 100-year anniversary of the canonisation of three French saints.
“The magnitude of the challenges facing the Church in France a century later, and the ever-relevant nature of these three models of holiness in confronting them, compel me to invite you to give this anniversary special prominence,” Pope Leo writes.
Three French saints
First, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, a 19th-century French Carmelite nun who died at age 24 and was declared a Doctor of the Church and Patroness of the Missions, canonized on May 17, 1925. Pope Leo XIV describes her as: “The great Doctor in scientia amoris [the science of love] whom our world needs—she who ‘breathed’ the Name of Jesus at every moment of her life, with spontaneity and freshness”.
Two weeks later, Pius XI canonised two priests. The first of these was Saint John Eudes (1601–1680), a French priest, founder of the Congregations of Jesus and Mary (Eudists) and of Our Lady of Charity. He dedicated his life to the formation of priests and to supporting women in financial or social difficulty, and promoted devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
The second priest was Saint Jean-Marie Vianney (1786–1859), more commonly known as the Curé of Ars, a French priest celebrated for his pastoral zeal, confessional practice, and his intense prayer life. He famously said that “the priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus.”
‘Models to imitate’
Saying he was “happy” to address a letter to the pastors of the Church in France, Pope Leo XIV highlighted Pope Pius XI’s intention in canonizing these three saints: he wanted to make them “Teachers to be listened to, models to be imitated, and powerful intercessors to pray to and invoke.”
“They,” the Pope wrote, “loved Jesus without reserve—in a simple, strong, and authentic way; they experienced His goodness and tenderness in a particular daily closeness, and they bore witness to it with admirable missionary fervour.”
Quoting Pope Francis’ most recent encyclical Dilexit nos (“He loved us”), dedicated to the Sacred Heart, the Holy Father proposed a missionary roadmap for France: “Help everyone discover the tender and preferential love Jesus has for them—so powerful it can transform their lives.”
France’s Christian heritage
Celebrating the centenary of the canonization of these three saints is “an invitation to give thanks to the Lord for the wonders He has accomplished in this land of France over many centuries of evangelization and Christian life,” writes the Holy Father, adding that “saints do not arise spontaneously, but by grace, emerge from living Christian communities that knew how to pass on the faith.”
“This Christian heritage still belongs to you,” Pope Leo said. “It still deeply permeates your culture and remains alive in many hearts. That is why I hope that these celebrations will not merely nostalgically recall a past that may seem gone, but will awaken hope and spark a new missionary momentum.”
‘Renewing wonders’
After having given these three saints to France, God can again “renew the wonders He accomplished in the past,” writes Pope Leo XIV. “Could Saint Thérèse not be the Patroness of the Missions in the very lands where she was born?”
The two priestly figures can also give courage to young men to respond to God’s call, especially in a time of priest shortages and when “Priests are increasingly burdened and tested.”
Ordaining eleven priests himself at St. Peter’s Basilica on May 31, Pope Leo XIV sends a message of gratitude to “All the priests of France for their courageous and persevering commitment.”
Finally, the Holy Father invokes the intercession of the three saints canonized in 1925 for France and for the country’s Catholics, who press on “amid contrary and sometimes hostile winds of indifference, materialism, and individualism”.
