So you've decided to give in to the Devil," said the priest. John started back in dismay. "Oh no, Father!" "But you just told me you were giving up your studies for the priesthood," responded Father Balley. What was poor John Vianney to do? Having begun his schooling much older than the other boys, he had found it impossible to keep up with them, and a couple of days ago he had been sent home from the seminary! It looked as if it were all over for his cherished hope of becoming a priest. But Fr. Balley was not going to give up. He was sure that John had a vocation, and now a plan had just occurred to him. "Listen, John," he began . . . This book tells what took place next. It also tells about the time John Vianney hid in a hayloft to escape the police, about the terrible sins he discovered when he became the cure, or parish priest, in the town of Ars, as well as his strategy for loosening the Devil's grip on souls there. It also describes what the Devil did back to Fr. Vianney, as well as what happened when Fr. Vianney tried to run away from his parish. In short, here is the true story of the many adventures that met young St. John Vianney when he set out to become a priest.
