Peter Julian Eymard

Born in 1811 at La Mure in the Dauphiné, son of a cutler who intended him for the workshop, he learned Latin in secret and entered the seminary against his father's wishes. Ordained priest in 1834, he joined the Marists, among whom he became provincial. The conviction that possessed him — that the eucharist should stand at the centre of Christian life and not be one rite among others — led him to leave his congregation in 1856, at forty-five, to found in Paris the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, devoted to perpetual adoration. The beginnings were wretched: a few companions, no money, the hostility of his former order. He then founded a women's branch with Marguerite Guillot, and organised first communion retreats for adult workers who had never been catechised. He died in 1868 at La Mure. Canonised in 1962, he is commemorated on 2 August.