Marked by poverty
Born in Lyon in 1826 (the Curé d’Ars was then 40 years old), Antoine Chevrier came from a family of modest means. He entered the Saint Irénée seminary and was ordained priest for the diocese of Lyon in 1850. Sent then as vicar to the parish of S. André de la Guillotière, in a poor and working-class district of Lyon, he discovered poverty there, in all its forms. He will remain forever marked by it.
The call
During Christmas night 1856, while praying in front of the nativity scene, he felt called to follow Jesus as closely as possible in his love for men, through poverty, humility and renunciation. He then decided to leave everything and live as poorly as possible. He felt the need to be reinforced in this particular vocation, and he went to see Jean-Marie Vianney in Ars at the beginning of 1857.
He strongly encouraged him and will always have a strong memory of him: “God wants your work,” the Holy Curé told him, “but first, many difficulties.” The Curé of Ars will not hesitate to send penitents or people seeking to give more of themselves to him.
In 1857, he joined C. Rambaud who had just founded a workers’ town to accommodate the victims of the catastrophic floods of 1856. Father Chevrier then devoted himself to the religious education of children and young people in this city.
Evangelizing the poor
In 1860, he bought a huge dance hall, called “le Prado” at La Guillotière, in which he already built a chapel. He welcomed poor young adolescents from the neighborhood there to teach them and, above all, to catechize them; thus was born the work of the Prado. For him: “evangelizing the poor was the great mission of Jesus Christ on earth”. As he refused to let children work, it was mainly poor people who helped him run this institution; workers from the Croix Rousse in Lyon, put a little money aside each week for the children of Father Chevrier.
In 1866, he founded a “clerical school” at the Prado to train priests who “understand and know the poor”. This gave rise to the Association of Prado Priests which, after his death, experienced great growth. He wrote for them, shortly before his death, “The true disciple or the priest according to the Gospel”, where he brings together his thoughts on the priesthood and the training of priests. “The priest is a stripped man, the priest is a crucified man, the priest is an eaten man,” he remarks.
He died of exhaustion and illness on October 6, 1879 (20 years after the Curé d’Ars). Thousands of poor people and workers from La Guillotière accompanied him to his final resting place. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1986 in Lyon, two days before his visit to Ars.
Extract from the Annales d’Ars n° 328[septembre-octobre 2010] .
