It is our experience that the life of St John-Mary Vianney, while not exhausting all the possibilities of what the priest can be, remains a source of inspiration and a point of reference for all priests. Named as patron saint of all the Parish Priests of the world by Pope Pius XI, he has been unceasingly proposed by his successors as a model for the clergy. St John Paul II said that “The figure of the Curé of Ars does not fade.” Then in 1986 during his visit to France, he declared three times: “The Curé of Ars remains, for all countries, a unequalled model of the fulfilment and the holiness of the ministry.” Benedict XVI, in his turn, said: “Far from reducing the figure of St John-Mary Vianney to an example, however admirable, of the devotional spirituality of the 19^th Century, it is instead necessary to grasp the prophetic force which distinguishes his human and priestly personality as something very up to date.” His example of life handed over to God, of the deep coherence between his teaching and his pastoral action, makes him a model for every priest, whatever the context of his mission. What strikes us is that he was entirely identified with his ministry in the radical gift of himself. Each priest experiences in his life a gulf between what he preaches and how he really lives. In the Curé of Ars we see a convergence that made one pilgrim say, having seen him: “I have seen God in a man.”