The son of a farmer, John Eudes was born on November 14, 1601, in Ri, Normandy, France. At 14, he enrolled at the Jesuit college in Caen. In 1623, he joined the Congregation of the Oratory of France, against the wishes of his parents, who had wanted him to marry.

After completing his studies in Paris and Aubervilliers, he was ordained in 1625 and volunteered to care for those affected by the plagues that ravaged Normandy in 1625 and 1631. He then spent the next ten years performing missions, earning a reputation as a superb preacher and confessor and for opposing Jansenism. Taking an interest in assisting fallen women, he and Madeleine Lamy established an asylum for them at Caen in 1641, run by the Visitandines.

After leaving the Oratorians in 1643, he established the Congregation of Jesus and Mary (also known as the Eudists) in Caen. This group of secular priests was free from vows and committed to preaching missions and building successful seminaries in order to advance the clergy.

The Bishop of Coutances invited him to create a seminary in that diocese in 1650, but he was denied papal authority due to opposition from the Oratorians and the Jansenists to his foundation. In that same year, the sisters at his refuge in Caen broke away from the Visitandines and were accepted as a distinct congregation by the Bayeux Bishop, going by the name Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge.

John established seminaries at Lisieux in 1653 and Rouen in 1659. He also tried unsuccessfully to get Papal sanction for his congregation once more, but in 1666 Pope Alexander III approved the Refuge sisters as an institution to recover and care for penitent wayward women. In addition to continuing his missionary work, John founded additional seminaries in 1670 at Rennes and 1666 at Evreux.

He was credited, along with St. Mary Margaret Alacoque, with starting the devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (he wrote the Sacred Heart Mass in 1668) and the Holy Heart of Mary. He popularized these devotions with his writings "The Devotion to the Adorable Heart of Jesus" (1670) and "The Admirable Heart of the Most Holy Mother of God," which he completed one month before he died in Caen.

John died in 1680. He was beatified on April 25 1909 in Saint Peter's Basilica, Italy by Pope Pius X. He was later canonized by Pope Pius XI on May 31, 1925 in Saint Peter's Basilica, Italy. His feast is celebrated on August 19. He is revered as the patron of Eudists, Order of Our Lady of Charity, Diocese of Baie-Comeau, & Missionaries.

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