THE SHRINE

St. Peter Julian Eymard is the founder of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament and the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament. He was born in La Mure d'Isère, France, on February 4, 1811, and died there on August 1, 1868. This major relic, the bone of the upper right arm, was sent to the Church of St. Jean Baptiste in 1911 by Louis-Ernest Cardinal Dubois, the Archbishop of Paris, after the body of then-Blessed Peter Julian was exhumed as part of the process of his canonization. St. John Paul II described St. Peter Julian in this way: 'This man of fire was possessed by Christ's love as revealed to us in the Eucharist; he ardently desired to manifest it to his contemporaries. Along with his companions, he inaugurated a form of religious life in which the Eucharist is the heart. His life, nourished by the Eucharist, which he celebrated and contemplated, was enriched with ministries of all kinds. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, he saw how much force for renewal the Eucharist constitutes for the Church and society.' St. Peter Julian Eymard was canonized during the Second Vatican Council by St. John XXIII on December 9, 1962. The Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament began its ministry at the Church of St. Jean Baptiste in 1900 and constructed this present edifice in 1913.