Bl.Peter Faber

As a child he tended his father's sheep during the week, and on Sunday he taught catechism to other children.
With a deep desire to study, he resolved to go to Paris. His parents consented to the separation, and in 1525 Peter arrived in Paris. Here he acquired the learning he desired, and found quite
unexpectedly his real vocation.

He was admitted  to the college of Sainte-Barbe, and shared the lodging of a student from
Navarre, Francis Xavier. They became intimately attached to each other, receiving on the same day in 1530 the degree of master of arts. At the university he also met St. Ignatius of Loyola and
became one of his associates.

He was ordained in 1834, and received at Montmartre, on 15 August of the same year, the vows of Ignatius and his five companions as Companions of Jesus.
After Ignatius, Faber was the one whom Xavier and his companions esteemed the most eminent.
He merited this esteem by his profound knowledge, his gentle sanctity, and his influence over
souls.

He believed in the reform of the faithful during the Reformation.
Using the Spiritual Exercises he accomplished most of his conversions.

Faber, at forty, was wasted by his incessant labours and his unceasing journeys always made on foot. The pope, however, thought of sending him to the Council of Trent as theologian of the Holy See; John III wanted him to be made Patriarch of Ethiopia.
Called to Rome, Faber, weakened by fever, arrived there 17 July, 1546, to die in the arms of St. Ignatius, the first of the following August.

Died 1 Aug., 1546, in Rome.

Beatified on 5 September, 1872