Chronology

1811

1823

1829

St. Peter Julian Eymard born at La Mure, near Grenoble, France (4 February).

First Holy Communion (16 March) aged twelve, following a solo pilgrimage to the shrine of Notre-Dame du Laus.

Enters novitiate of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (7 June). Returns to La Mure after a breakdown in health (November) and defers his vocation.

1831

1834

1836

1837

1839

1840

Enters the major seminary of Grenoble (September).

Ordained a priest of the diocese of Grenoble (20 July). Appointed assistant-priest at Chatte.

Mystical experience or close awareness of God at the summit of the Rock of Saint-Romans.

Posted to Monteynard as parish priest (July).

Enters novitiate of the Society of Mary (Marist Fathers) at Lyons (20 August).

Professes vows in the Society of Mary (February) and begins a four-year term as spiritual director at the Marist College of Belley.

1844

1849

Appointed provincial of the Society of Mary in Lyons (November).

Meets with members of the Association of Nocturnal Adorers in Paris (January) and is convinced of the importance of eucharistic worship.

1851

Moves to establish a Marist community devoted to eucharistic adoration, after praying at the Basilica of Fourvière (21 January). Appointed superior of the Marist College at La Seyne-sur-mer (September).

1855

Drafts initial rules for a future eucharistic religious congregation (May), but is told to abandon his eucharistic projects by the Marist superior-general Fr Julien Favre (June).

1856

Receives consent of the Paris bishops to establish the Blessed Sacrament Congregation (13 May), after leaving the Society of Mary. First community established at 114 rue d’Enfer, Paris.

1857

Begins public exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in Paris (6 January) and later initiates a eucharistic association with lay members that becomes known as the Aggregation of the Blessed Sacrament.

1858

Collaborates with Marguerite Guillot to establish a contemplative eucharistic religious congregation for women, now known as the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament.

1859

Professes vows of ‘perpetual service of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament’ with three other Congregation members (2 March). Community at Marseilles established by Fr Raymond de Cuers (9 November), after a request from Bishop Eugène de Mazenod.

1862

1863

Community established at Angers (December).

Pope Pius IX grants a Decree of Approbation to the Blessed Sacrament Congregation (8 May), effective from 3 June 1863.

1865

1866

1868

1877

Recognises the importance of the ‘gift of self’ during a nine-week retreat in Rome (January to March).

Community established at Brussels, Belgium (2 February).

Dies, aged 57, at La Mure, France (1 August).

Remains removed from La Mure and interred in the Blessed Sacrament Congregation Chapel of Corpus Christi in Paris.

1898

1908

1916

1919

1925

1948

1949

Canonisation processes begin.

Cause for sainthood is approved by Pope Pius X, who declares Eymard ‘Venerable’ (August).

Cure of Lucinda Cifuentes of Santiago, Chile from stomach cancer is attributed to Eymard’s intercession.

Cure of Renée Fouchereau of Angers, France from tuberculosis is attributed to Eymard’s intercession.

Pope Pius XI beatifies Eymard (12 July) after acceptance of the 1916 and 1919 cures as miraculous.

Cure of Charles Verdier of Bourges, France from tuberculosis of the bone is attributed to Eymard’s intercession.

Cure of Dora Bartels of Melbourne, Australia from mitral valve stenosis (following a novena at St Francis’ Church) is attributed to Eymard’s intercession.

1962

Pope John XXIII canonises Eymard a saint (9 December) after acceptance of the 1948 and 1949 cures as miraculous.

1995

Pope John-Paul II decrees that Eymard’s feast day be inserted in the General Roman Calendar, to be celebrated each year on 2 August.