Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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ARS (shrine)

A basilica on the site of the parish of St. John Vianney (1786-1859), who labored as pastor of the village church of Ars in central France. The Byzantine structure is next to the original church, where the Curé of Ars was pastor and confessor to thousands for forty years, and in 1929 was declared by Pope Pius XI the heavenly patron of parochial clergy. At the shrine are kept the saint's modest possessions, including the half-burned bed, said to have been set afire by the devil in one of the obsessions to which the Curé was often subjected.