Confessor to the Curé d’Ars
As Confessor for the last fourteen years of his life, until the death of the Curé d’Ars, Abbé Beau is a major witness to this.
Louis Beau was born in Ambronay (Ain, 50 km east of Ars) on December 30, 1808. After several years of ministry, he was appointed parish priest of Jassans (5 km from Ars) in September 1844. He knows his eminent neighbor from his confession to him when he was vicar in Grenay (east of Lyon).
When I arrived,” he testifies, “I went to Ars to recommend my holy ministry to the holy Curé. After that first visit, I went back, but rarely: the holy Curé was so busy, and his holiness frightened me. I couldn’t shake the feeling: what a difference between his life and mine!… Why don’t you live like that?… I was reassured by the words of the Gospel: “There are many dwelling places in my Father’s house” (Jn 14:2).
In November 1845, “feeling inwardly impelled” for a month to go to Ars, he went directly to Providence around midday to see him more easily. He recounts: “I gave him a recommendation, and already had my traveling stick, when the holy priest took me under his arm and led me to his room. Judge my astonishment, when, getting down on his knees, he begged me to hear his confession. “Be good enough to come like this from time to time. You’ll oblige me”.
M. Dufour, a diocesan missionary from Belley serving in Ars, reports that his curé was “very regular in going to confession, and the curé from Jassans came often” and at all hours… Which lends authority to this confidence from Abbé Beau about his singular penitent: I don’t know that he ever slackened off… He was surrounded by a halo of holiness. I can’t express how much reverence and respect he inspired in me… I don’t think it’s possible to go any further in the practice of heroic virtues…
What can I say to that? On the way the Curé d’Ars used to say Mass, pray his breviary, say grace… he says: “the memory of what I saw in those moments still impresses me”. In fact, it was a priestly friendship that developed between them. The Curé d’Ars called him “my dear friend”, offered him the claret his doctor had prescribed for him, and even gave him a chalice as a gift! On Corpus Christi 1852, when the parish priest of Jassans was seriously ill, the saintly Curé came to visit him: “He had walked all the way, in excessive heat, and even though he had already presided over the procession of the Blessed Sacrament,” he confided. On the night the Curé d’Ars left this land, Abbé Beau twice suggested that a missionary give him the last rites. “It’s up to you,” he replies with all his remaining strength. Abbé Beau remained in Jassans as parish priest and died on January 4, 1870 at the age of 61. This is where he rests in peace, in the shadow of the cemetery’s central cross.
From Annales d’Ars no. 342 [janvier – février 2013].
