St. John Vianney, the Cure d’Ars, the patron saint of parish priests, apparently believed that no parish priests ever became saints. Fr. Walter Gumbley, O.P. wrote a little book, Parish Priests Among the Saints, (1947) in correction.
From Gumbley’s introduction, “It has sometimes been stated that, with the single exception of St. John Vianney, no parish priest has become a saint. Henri Gheon, in his The Secret of the Cure d’Ars, relates that the holy man was ‘terrified to learn that in the long roll of the ages not a single parish priest had been raised to the Church’s altars as a saint. Popes had been canonized, cardinals, bishops, religious and laymen; but of parish priests not one; not the shadow of one.’”
Gumbley goes on to demonstrate that this is erroneous, listing 31 cases (pre-Vianney) in refutation. (There are probably additional relevant canonizations since 1947.) But none of his cases are particularly well known, and only a few were canonized for their display of holiness explicitly in the exercise of their regular parish duties. (Most clearly on point was St. Peter Fourier, who died in 1644, and was canonized by Leo XIII in 1897. But since Vianney died in 1859, he would not have known of his distinguished predecessor.) Gumbley also points to St. Ivo Hellory, who died in1303 and was canonized in 1347. Ivo was a canon lawyer and ecclesiastical judge, but gave up his law practice to serve as a parish priest (which by itself seems sufficient ground for canonization.)
So the Cure d’Ars was wrong, but not by much. Parish priests are, to say the least, underrepresented in the lists of saints. One might wonder why.
In the middle ages, parish priests were the proletarians of the clergy: lowly regarded, criticized as ill trained, lax, or corrupt. Reform movements usually arose from monastic orders.
But with the rise of structured seminary education, parish priests are now well trained and dedicated, and work longer hours than any labor law would permit. The expectations of today’s catholic parish priests are far higher than any other church’s pastoral duties.
So, maybe the shortage of saints among parish priests is simply because the basic job expectations are so high. Exceeding those expectations really takes some doing. (Underachieving, however, appears to be all too easy.)
There probably ought to be a lot more recognized parish priest saints. There probably ARE a lot more than we will ever recognize, until we meet them in heaven.
Until then, consider your parish priest. If he seems to be genuinely Catholic (not a “progressive” modernizer), and he is as hard working as mine, he is probably a saint-in-the-making. Remember to give thanks to God for him in your daily prayers. And thank your parish priest, too. Do it often.
ADDENDUM
In the above post, I relied on Fr. Walter Gumbley’s 1947 book (Parish Priests Among the Saints) listing 31 parish-priest-saints. I also noted in passing that “There are probably additional relevant canonizations since 1947.” Unfortunately, I have been unable to find such an update.
But I have noted a relevant source on this matter. Robert Royal’s 2000 book The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century is a remarkable collection of data and stories detailing a grim reality: the 20th century saw a worse slaughter of believing Christians, especially Catholics, than any comparable era in history.
He analyzes these mass martyrdoms in country after country. Some are not unexpected: Communist China, Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Turkish Armenia. But the most striking are the Catholic countries in which “the appearance of virulent anti-Christian ideologies and brutally repressive regimes seeking to impose them…led directly to the widespread suffering and slaughter of religious believers,” including parish priests.
The Spanish Civil War of the 1930’s is widely remembered as a heroic struggle against fascism. In fact, it began with brutal attacks by communists, socialists, and anarchists against the Catholic Church. In the first six months of the war (1936), 6,382 priests, monks, and nuns were massacred by the “Loyalist” forces. Royal says “perhaps the greatest fury fell upon diocesan clergy” (parish priests). In cities controlled by the left, hundreds of priests were murdered: in Madrid alone, 1118. Unarmed, unresisting priests murdered for doing their duty to their parishioners, their Church, and God. Martyrs.
The Church has since recognized many new martyrs and saints from these cruel persecutions. I do not know how many were parish priests. But I suspect that they were all too well represented in the ranks of the sainted martyrs.
As I said before, “there probably ought to be a lot more recognized parish priest saints. There probably ARE a lot more than we will ever recognize, until we meet them in heaven.
O Ben Finiti 