From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   December 9th - St. Peter Fourier   
      
   Parish Priest of Mattaincourt   
   Reformer of the Canons of Saint Augustine   
   Founder of the Canonesses of Notre Dame   
   (1565-1640)   
      
   This priest of God was consecrated to Him before and at his birth by his   
   pious   
   parents, who destined their eldest son for the altars. His aptitude for   
   study,   
   his high stature and beauty added the gifts of nature to those of grace. The   
   young man was noted in particular for his devotion to the Mother of God and   
   his   
   great modesty. It was a surprise to all when he chose to consecrate himself   
   to   
   God in a religious Order which at that time had degenerated from its   
   original   
   fervor, that of the Canons of Saint Augustine. He made application for   
   entrance   
   into the Abbey of Chaumouzey, founded in 1094, situated a short distance   
   from   
   his native village of Mirecourt in Lorraine. There he made the traditional   
   vows   
   of poverty, chastity and obedience in 1587, and was ordained a priest in   
   February of 1589.   
      
   Before saying his first Mass he passed several months of retreat in the   
   exercises of prayer, penance and tears. He was then sent to complete his   
   theological studies at the university of Pont-au-Mousson, also in Lorraine.   
   There Father Jean Fourier, a relative who was Rector of that University,   
   directed him admirably. His progress in virtue and the sacred sciences   
   placed   
   him high in the opinion of the Cardinal of Lorraine and Bishop of Metz, who   
   desired to have him in his diocese; he offered him a parish where his   
   talents   
   would bring him advancement. But the young priest, wishing to flee all   
   honors,   
   declined, to return to his Abbey.   
      
   There hell instigated against him a persecution; he was the brunt of   
   raillery,   
   threats, and intrigues, and an effort was made to poison him, which did not   
   succeed. For two years he lived in the midst of contradictions without   
   complaining in any way to his abbot, who seemed unaware of what was   
   happening;   
   he increased in patience and kindness towards his persecutors. Eventually he   
   was   
   again offered a choice of three parishes, two of which would provide   
   opportunity   
   for advancement, while the third was in a village regarded as incorrigible   
   and   
   backward. It was the last one that he chose. The people there were   
   prosperous   
   but more than indifferent to religion. The Sacraments were neglected and the   
   feast days profaned; the altars were bare and the church was deserted when   
   he   
   arrived.   
      
   He began by visiting families and assembling two or three of them to talk to   
   them of the truths of the faith. He did not go to the banquets which   
   followed   
   funerals and weddings, save to offer the prayer of blessing or make a short   
   exhortation. He did not accept a housekeeper, even when his own stepmother   
   offered to assist him. He prayed for the greater part of every night, and   
   never   
   refused to go where he was called, at any time or in any season. So little   
   did   
   he need for himself that he was able to give alms and assistance to the   
   poor. He   
   prayed before Jesus on the altar: "You are the principal parish priest, I am   
   only Your vicar. And permit me to say to You, with all the humility of my   
   heart,   
   that You are under obligation to make succeed what I cannot."   
      
   He desired to remedy the evils of the times by forming children to virtue;   
   and   
   Providence soon brought to him several young women who offered themselves   
   for   
   the instruction of young girls. Within the space of only a few years, six   
   schools were founded in the region, and before he died, about forty. Blessed   
   Alice LeClerc was the first Sister and first Superior of the Canonesses of   
   Notre   
   Dame, dedicated to the education of young women. For this purpose Saint   
   Peter   
   was obliged to confide his parish to his vicar for a time, to journey and   
   obtain   
   the various permissions and assistance necessary; but it was God's work and   
   all   
   efforts succeeded.   
      
   His own parish was gradually being transformed into a model, and priests   
   came to   
   visit it. One of them reported to his bishop the marvels of devotion he had   
   seen   
   in Mattaincourt, and said he had asked the parish priest where he had   
   studied;   
   Saint Peter had answered that he had "studied in the fourth" - corresponding   
   in   
   America to about the ninth grade. Astonished, the visitor was yet more so   
   when   
   he learned that this modest priest had certainly studied in the fourth, as   
   he   
   had said, but out of horror for vainglory had wanted to dissimulate his   
   years of   
   higher studies.   
      
   The bishops were asking him to visit their parishes to preach missions where   
   needed; the holy priest obeyed, amid his increasing tears and penance, as he   
   perceived the vices and ignorance of the populations. He also was concerned   
   to   
   reestablish the discipline and fervor of his own Order, an effort which had   
   failed several times. But in 1621 the Bishop of Toul, Monsignor de   
   Porcelets,   
   entrusted this work to Father Fourier. A house was found to begin the   
   Reform,   
   the vacant ancient Abbey of Saint Remi, and six excellent subjects were sent   
   there under his direction. In four years, eight houses of the Order had   
   adopted   
   the Reform. A General Superior was named; for a time Father Fourier was able   
   to   
   avoid that office, but when the good Superior died, he was obliged to accept   
   its   
   functions. Attacked by the devil, his influence distorted by calumnies,   
   Saint   
   Peter's only response was to spread everywhere devotion to the Immaculate   
   Conception of the Blessed Virgin. More than two centuries before the   
   Miraculous   
   Medal in 1830 and the proclamation of the dogma in 1854, he saw to the   
   distribution of large quantities of a medal he had struck, on which were   
   engraved the words: "Mary was conceived without sin".   
      
   Saint Peter Fourier died in exile as an effect of the difficulties and   
   political   
   problems of the 1630's; he found shelter in a province which was at that   
   time   
   under the Spanish crown, and there he died in 1640. His spiritual sons, his   
   spiritual daughters, the good people of Gray in Bourgogne, who had welcomed   
   him   
   and whom he had served admirably during an epidemic of the pestilence, all   
   wanted the honor of possessing his mortal remains. But so did also the   
   parish of   
   Mattaincourt. To the reformed Order of Saint Augustine this privilege was   
   granted officially, but the pious women of Mattaincourt, blocking the church   
   door, would not permit the Canons to resume their journey with the coffin,   
   after   
   they had stopped in his former parish for a day or so. His heart had already   
   been left to the parish of Gray. Miracles have abounded at his tomb, as they   
   did   
   during his lifetime, by his prayers. He was canonized by Pope Leo XIII in   
   1897.   
      
   Source: Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin   
   (Bloud et   
   Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 14.   
      
      
      
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