This was characterized by a strong sense of adoration, plus pursuit of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ which extended to the Holy Spirit.

[6] During severe plagues in 1627 and 1631, he volunteered to care for the stricken in his own diocese, administering the sacraments and ensuring the dead received a proper burial.

With the support of Cardinal Richelieu and a number of individual bishops, he severed his connection with the Oratorians to establish the Eudists for the education of priests and for parish missions.

Eudes also founded the Society of the Most Admirable Mother which acted as a sort of Third Order, and would later count among its members Jeanne Jugan and Amelie Fristel.

[3] Eudes was influenced by the teachings of the French school, Francis de Sales, and the revelations of Gertrude the Great and Mechtilde.

[6] Eudes taught about the mystical unity of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and wrote: You must never separate what God has so perfectly united.

The formal introduction to the cause came on 7 February 1874 under Pope Pius IX, who titled Eudes as a Servant of God.

Pope Leo XIII later confirmed, on 6 January 1903, that Eudes had lived a life of heroic virtue and thus named him as Venerable.

Pope Pius X later approved two miracles attributed to Eudes' intercession and beatified him on 25 April 1909 in Saint Peter's Basilica.

[9] Saint Peter's Basilica features a statue portraying (and dedicated to) Eudes constructed by Silvio Silva in 1932.

His supporters first proposed the idea to have Eudes named as a Doctor of the Church around the time of World War II, though the conflict and then the course of the Second Vatican Council caused the suspension of inquiries into such a path.

[10] In the course of 2014–15, the episcopal conferences of France, Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador, Benin, Honduras, and Colombia gave their full support to this proposal.

[citation needed] The plenary session of the French Episcopal Conference on 8 November 2014 confirmed its support for the cause of Eudes as a Doctor of the Church.

On 3 December 2016 the then-Superior General of the Eudists Camilo Bernal Hadad and the Bishop of Le Puy-en-Velay Luc Crépy met with Pope Francis to discuss the idea.