St. Jean Marie Vianney feast day

Today is my favorite saint St. Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney's feast day. He's the renowned Cure d'Ars, the patron saint of parish priests and well-loved for his humility, perseverance and humble acceptance of God's will. Here is rather brief write-up about him on Catholic Online:

Universally known as the "Cure of Ars," St. John Mary Vianney was ordained a priest in 1815. Three years later he was made parish priest of Ars, a remote French hamlet, where his reputation as a confessor and director of souls made him known throughout the Christian world. His life was one of extreme mortification.

Accustomed to the most severe austerities, beleaguered by swarms of penitents, and besieged by the devil, this great mystic manifested a imperturbable patience. He was a wonderworker loved by the crowds, but he retained a childlike simplicity, and he remains to this day the living image of the priest after the heart of Christ.

He heard confessions of people from all over the world for the sixteen hours each day. His life was filled with works of charity and love. It is recorded that even the staunchest of sinners were converted at his mere word. He died August 4, 1859, and was canonized May 31, 1925.

There are much longer and detailed accounts of the life of this beloved priest in the online Catholic Encyclopedia as well as in the archives of the EWTN libraries. The definitive biography by the Abbe Francis Trochu published by TAN books has long been on my wishlist. Goodwill Book Store used to have a few copies of this book a few years ago but the price then was beyond what I could afford. Now that I have a bit more money, I'm quite disappointed to find that it's no longer available there.