Saint John Eudes (1601–1680) was a French priest who spent decades preaching parish missions across Normandy and caring for the sick during plague outbreaks. He founded the Congregation of Jesus and Mary (the Eudists) to train priests, and the Order of Our Lady of Charity to shelter women in need. He was a pioneer of devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and was canonized in 1925.
John Eudes shows us a love that is both tender and practical — he preached about the Heart of Jesus, and then went out to serve the sick and the forgotten with his own hands. His life reminds us that a heart close to God naturally opens toward the people who are hurting nearby. In grief, his devotion invites us to rest our own aching hearts in the gentle Heart of Christ.
Saint John Eudes, you knew the tenderness of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary; pray for us, that our wounded hearts may find rest and healing there. Amen.