Ecclesiastical society founded at Caen, France on 25 March 1643, by Saint John Eudes. The society educates priests in seminaries, and gives missions.
Eudes did not introduce religious vows to the society. He believed that priests were in a position to inspire young clerics with a high idea of the priesthood and its sanctity. He also believed that bishops would not hand over seminaries to priests who were not entirely subject to them. Eudists are not, therefore, a religious order, but an ecclesiastical body under the immediate jurisdiction of the bishops, assigned to aid in the formation of the clergy. It is composed of priests and postulants who are admitted after a probation of three years and three months. There are also lay brothers employed in temporal affairs, but who do not wear ecclesiastical habit.
Eudists yearly celebrate the Feast of the Holy Priesthood of Jesus Christ and of all Holy Priests and Levites. They also celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary with an octave beginning 13 November which ends with a renewal of the clerical promises on 21 November, the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin.
Eudists are subject to discipline which does not differ from that of orders with simple vows. The administration is modelled on the Oratory, to which Eudes belonged for twenty years. Supreme authority resides in a general assembly which names the superior general, and which controls his administration; it alone can make permanent laws. Between general assemblies, the superior general exercises full authority in matters spiritual and temporal. He has the right to name and depose local superiors, to fix the personnel of each house, to make the annual visit, to admit, and, in case of necessity, to dismiss, subjects, to accept or to give up foundations, and, in general, to perform, or at least to authorize, all important acts. He is aided by assistants, named by the general assembly, who have a deciding vote in temporal affairs, and a consulting vote only in other questions.
During the French Revolution, three Eudists, Fathers Hébert, Potier, and Lefranc, were martyred at Paris in the massacres of September, 1792. The cause of their beatification, with some other victims of September, has been introduced. Father Hébert was the confessor of King Louis XVI, and shortly before his death he made the king promise to consecrate his kingdom to the Sacred Heart if he escaped from his enemies.
After the Revolution, the society had great difficulty in reestablishing itself; it was only in the second half of the 19th century that it began to prosper. Unable to regain control of their former seminaries, the Eudists entered upon missionary work and secondary education in colleges. The 1906 Law of Associations destroyed their establishments in France. They have opened schools in Belgium and Spain, seminaries at Carthagena, Antioquia, Pamplona, Panamá, and the West Indies. the Vicariate Apostolic of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, a seminary at Halifax, Nova Scotia, a college at Church Point, Nova Scotia, and Caraquet, New Brunswick, and other establishments. In France, where the majority remains, Eudists preach missions and do other works.
