Tour of French saint's intact heart to stop at Hempfield parish

The “incorrupt,” or intact, heart of St. Jean Vianney, a 19th-century French priest, will make a stop in Hempfield on April 17 as part of a national tour.

The unusual relic will be available for veneration at Our Lady of Grace Parish, 1011 Mt. Pleasant Road, following a 9 a.m. Mass celebrated by Greensburg Bishop Edward C. Malesic and until closing vespers at 7:30 p.m.

The relic is on loan from the Shrine of Ars, France, and is touring the United States under the sponsorship of the Knights of Columbus, which is promoting the event as a “spiritual response” to the clergy sexual abuse scandal.

“We — like all Catholics — are painfully aware of the wreckage that ensues when elements of this leadership are abdicated by evil actions whether directly perpetrated or covered up,” Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said. “We welcome as providential this opportunity to invoke the intercession of the patron of parish priests, whose holiness and integrity are a singular model for clergy.”

Thousands of Catholics venerate the incorrupt heart of St. Jean Vianney as it makes a nationwide pilgrimage. Read more: https://t.co/b6Ur4huIYL #HeartofaPriest pic.twitter.com/UObX9rpvDz

— Knights of Columbus (@KofC) February 20, 2019

St. Jean Vianney, also known as the Cure of Ars, served as the parish priest in Ars, France, for more than 40 years in the period following the French Revolution and the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte. Upon his death in 1859, his heart was removed, and it has been preserved in a reliquary for more than 150 years. He was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1925 and named the patron saint of parish priests in 1929.

The current tour began in November at the Knights of Columbus headquarters in New Haven, Conn., and will continue through early June. The “Heart of a Priest” tour is being promoted with the hashtag #HeartofaPriest.

In the Catholic Church, relics may be venerated, but not worshipped, as tangible signs of a saint’s life and holiness.