Saint John Eudes was born at Ri, a country parish near Caen, Normandy, in 1601. Endowed with extraordinary talents and filled with burning zeal for the salvation of souls, he devoted 50 years of life, until his death in 1680, to the preaching of missions and to the organization of ecclesiastical seminaries. He founded the Congregation of Jesus and Mary, generally known as the Eudist Fathers, for missionary and seminary work; the Order of Our Lady of Charity with its two observances of the Refuge and of the Good Shepherd; the Society of the Most Admirable Heart for lay persons aspiring to perfection in the world; and lastly, Confraternities of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary for the propagation among the faithful of the devotion, of which he was the first apostle. He wrote the first Mass and Office for the special feast in honor of the Sacred Heart and of the Holy Heart of Mary, which he established thirty years before the revelations of the Sacred Heart to Saint Margaret Mary.

For those who relish a rich interior life, Loreto Publications is delighted to provide you with the seraphic insights of Saint John Eudes, one of the greatest spiritual writers of all time. Known as the apostle of devotion to the Sacred and Admirable Hearts of Jesus and Mary, John Eudes is very much needed in this apathetic age. An atrophic, and chilling frigidity of soul seems to be threatening the very lifeblood of Catholic altruism. Although the sacramental lifeblood of grace, with all of its divine efficacy, is inexhaustible in its source, even still, the maternal hands of the Lord s holy mother, who longs to dispense the higher gifts of God with such largesse, can be tied on account of our lukewarmness.

Behold this Heart which has loved man so much, Jesus said to Saint Margaret Mary as He unveiled that pulsing reality to her enraptured eye. This is the Heart of Our Savior that was pierced by a lance. This is the Heart Saint John Eudes presents to us in the unforgettable exposé.

Like Saint John the Apostle, Father Eudes had the privilege of what could be nothing less than direct intimate access to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. One can only conclude after reading this book that here was a man driven by the Holy Spirit to cast fire upon the earth with the pen of a scrivener lost in divine abandon. God is wonderful in His saints, and with holy gusto Loreto seconds the accolade given to Saint John Eudes by a grateful generation: the wonder of his age.