This is the Year of the Priest in the Catholic Church.  Along with this generally comes a mention of the Curé of Ars.

I admit that I did not know who the Curé of Ars was until I read this post on The Hermeneutic of Continuity.  Why, it turns out the Curé was none other than St John Vianney.  Thank you, Fr Tim, for making this clear.

More people will know who St John Vianney is than they will ’the Curé of Ars’.  And that’s a pretty unfortunate identity to be discussing, anyway, especially with regard to priests.  I can imagine Britons making all sorts of jokes about it. 

Can’t the Catholic hierarchy just say ‘St John Vianney’?  He had a name, why not use it?

You can read more about St Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney here.  He was a devout, caring French priest who lived his whole life near Lyons.  He saved many souls and, posthumously, many miracles have been attributed to him.  Such were his dedication to his parishoners and devotions to Our Lord that Pope St Pius X proposed him as a role model to priests in the early 20th century.  By that time, the Curé had already been beatified. 

Pope Pius XI canonised John Vianney in 1925.  His feast day is August 4.