“The Little Shepherd”
He is the first child from Ars to have a statue at the entrance to the village, and to have thus become so famous, even though we know almost nothing about him… Friday February 13, 1818, at the end of day full of fog as often happens at this time, young Antoine is outside (he is 12 years old). Did he look after his cows or his sheep as biographers report? The time and especially the season make it doubtful, but he was there with friends, on the way from Lyon via Toussieux. It is located at the limit of the commune, or more precisely at that of the parish. A team arrives with a young priest walking alongside them. The young priest (32 years old) is Mr. Vianney, a young pastor who has just been appointed pastor of the parish of Ars, under the responsibility of the neighboring priest of Mizérieux; he comes to take possession of his post.
The encounter
He arrives on foot, accompanied by the widow Bibost, servant of his late priest, Abbot Balley. After a day of walking, the small group must be very tired. Mr. Vianney left Écully early in the morning, where he has just spent almost 11 years at Mr. Balley’s school; he learned and received everything from the one who had just died and whom he considered his master.
You showed me the way to Ars, I will show you the way to Heaven
He also knows that he is being sent to a poor village, far from the main lines of communication, marked by the revolution and the dechristianization that followed it. The first parishioner he met was Antoine Givre, who reported the interview. Young Antoine does not realize that the destiny of his small village has just changed with the arrival of this new pastor!
Seeing the young boy, the Abbot asks him for directions. In a dialect different from that of Écully, Antoine shows him the direction. “Well, my friend,” said Mr. Vianney, “you showed me the way to Ars, I will show you the way to Heaven.”
The monument
It is in this place that the bronze monument made in 1936 by Castex currently stands. Young Antoine certainly did not perceive the significance of the response: the whole mission of the future Curé of Ars is there, to show everyone the path to Heaven, that is to say, to lead them on the path of life with God. , the path to holiness.
Then, Mr. Vianney bends down and kisses the ground as a sign of love for the people who inhabit this place and to whom he is sent. It is reported that he then made this remark while looking at the few houses lurking in the hollow of the valley: “how small it is! one day this locality will not be large enough to accommodate the crowds of those who will come there”; he never denied this observation.
Little Antoine grew up, married, had a family and died on August 9, 1859, five days after the Saint Curé, 150 years ago.
Until the end, he showed him the way to Heaven…
Extract from the Annales d’Ars n° 322[sept-oct 2009] .
