St. John Eudes

St. John Eudes was born on 14 November 1601 at Ri in Normandy, France, and died on 19 August 1680 at Caen. Ordained a priest and for a time a member of the Oratory, he devoted himself to preaching parish missions and to the reform and training of the clergy, ministering heroically to the sick during outbreaks of plague. He later founded the Congregation of Jesus and Mary (the Eudists) to form good priests, and the Order of Our Lady of Charity to care for women seeking to leave lives of sin.

He is best remembered as an apostle of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He composed the first liturgical office and Mass in their honor and worked to spread this devotion throughout the Church, well before the revelations to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque made it widespread. He was canonized in 1925 by Pope Pius XI.