Curé of Ars: CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. John Vianney

CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: St. John Vianney 
Curé of Ars: Patron of Priests
[Note: In 1925, Pope Pius XI canonized him. His feast is kept on 4 August.]
Excerpt:
But the chief labour of the Curé d'Ars was the direction of souls. He had not been long at Ars when people began coming to him from other parishes, then from distant places, then from all parts of France, and finally from other countries. As early as 1835, his bishop forbade him to attend the annual retreats of the diocesan clergy because of "the souls awaiting him yonder". During the last ten years of his life, he spent from sixteen to eighteen hours a day in the confessional. His advice was sought by bishops, priests, religious, young men and women in doubt as to their vocation, sinners, persons in all sorts of difficulties and the sick. In 1855, the number of pilgrims had reached twenty thousand a year...