When Pope Francis canonized Pierre Favre (Peter Faber) last year on December 17, several Jesuits felt that a wrong had finally been made right. Pierre Favre, first companion and co-founder of the Society of Jesus, was for the longest time only “blessed” and Fr Roger Champoux SJ for one couldn’t understand why. In a homily he delivered weeks after the canonization, he shared three main points in honour of the new saint whom he used to think of as the “great forgotten one” – first, how Pierre Favre was truly co-founder of the Jesuits; second, his important and admirable traits; and third, what his canonization means for us today.
Published in the Windhover, a magazine produced by Philippine Jesuit scholastics, Fr Champoux’s homily shows us why Pierre Favre inspires many people who seek to follow the path laid out by the first companions. Ignatius was the organizer, provider of the spirit and the body of the mission. Xavier was the missionary to the ends of the world. Peter Favre was “a man of the heart, a man of amazing depth and interiority, a man with a great pastoral touch. He was really the man of the Spiritual Exercises, as recognized by Ignatius himself.”
Pierre Favre was born in 1506 in the village of Villaret, Savoy. When he arrived Paris in 1525 to pursue his studies at the University of Paris, he shared his lodgings first with Francis Xavier and then with Ignatius of Loyola. Among the first companions, he was the first to be ordained priest and was the one who celebrated Mass when they pronounced their vows in 1534 on the feast of our Lady’s assumption. He died in Rome in 1546 at the age of 40. His memorial is celebrated on August 2.
According to Fr Champoux, Favre’s canonization shows us that “our Society does not consist only of travelling giants like Francis Xavier or creative geniuses like Ignatius, but of humble and simple servants, even if neurotic, who seek God in prayer and approach people with kindness.” He continued, “I think that both Pope Francis and Saint Pierre Favre are speaking to us. Perhaps Pope Francis, by giving Pierre Favre to us as a saint, is not only revealing to us that he loves him very much and takes him as a model, but is also challenging us to the same sort of humble, kind and compassionate presence to people. Let us listen to them.”
Fr Roger Champoux SJ is a French-Canadian Jesuit who has been a formator and consultor at the Loyola House of Studies in Manila, Philippines for more than 20 years. He was formerly Tertianship Master for the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific, and was also the Philippine Jesuit Province’s resident psychologist and psychometrician, specializing in personality testing, counselling and spiritual direction.