St. Peter Julian Eymard

I was too young to really pay attention to the change in Sunday routine. And I really don't recall walking to the little wooden church right next door to the house. But sometime in the 1960's we began driving a few blocks to the "new" church and as I got older, realized that the parish name had changed. It used to be St. Joseph's and I recall hearing the family speak about how it began as a mission church to the much larger and beautiful edifice known as Holy Name of Mary, located in historic Algiers Point.

St. Joseph's territory grew and a new church was built and eventually named St. Julian Eymard. This was quite a new phenomena in the Archdiocese of New Orleans because St. Julian Eymard was a newly canonized saint. It would be many years later before I even realized his first name was not Julian.

Peter Julian Eymard was born in 1811 and ordained a Priest in 1834 in France. He was determined to be a Priest despite economic hardship, illness and a not so supportive family. He had a special devotion to the Eucharist and to Mary so he became a Marist Priest. His devotion to the Eucharist inspired him to began a new religious order and in 1856 he began the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament. He and his order devoted themselves to the promotion of frequent reception of communion and Eucharistic Adoration. He wrote 9 books, most devoted to the Eucharist and his love for Mary as Mother of God. He died in 1868. Among his contemporaries while he ministered was St. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars, who we remember this year in the Year For the Priest. Soon after the conclusion of the first session of Vatican II, His Holiness, Blessed Pope John 23rd canonized Peter Julian Eymard in 1962.

I wish I would have known some of this then. I just knew that I went to church at St Julian Eymard and my sister went to school there. I grew up in that parish. I learned about ministry by being an altar server and a lector. My wife became a Catholic there, we were married there, my son was baptized there, we said goodbye to loved ones there. I left the parish in the late seventies and only returned a few times. In 2002, the parish celebrated it's 50th anniversary, which included time credited as St. Joseph's. By 2008, it was closed and became part of Holy Name of Mary. What goes around comes around.

By the way, the parish never used Julian Eymard's first name, Peter, in it's title. Why? There was concern that too many parishes carried the name of Peter in the archdiocese already so they took advantage of his middle and last names.

Yep, the old parish of my youth is gone forever but the faith of St. Peter Julian Eymard inspires and motivates Catholics worldwide to a special devotion to the Eucharist. Remember him in a special way as we celebrate his feast day on Monday, August 3rd. St. Peter Julian Eymard, pray for us!