Blessed Peter Faber of Villaret

Blessed Lefèvre was born on April 13, 1506, in a humble cottage in Le Villaret, a small village situated between two churches of Our Lady, that of Entremont and that of Le Grand-Bernard, in the diocese of Annecy (Haute-Savoie). He was given the name Pierre at his bapti Pierre First companion of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. sm.

As a young shepherd, he often came to place himself under the protection of Our Lady of All Saints of Entremont. His piety was so tender, and his morals so pure, that the angel of the Lord took him by the hand, in the fields of Le Villaret, to set him on the path to the sanctuary. He completed his initial studies at the college of La Roche, and went on to continue université de Paris Place of birth, ministry, and death of the saint. them at the University of Paris.

Pierre Lefèvre met in Paris with Ignatius of Loyola, Fran Ignace de Loyola Founder of the Society of Jesus and friend of Philip. cis Xavier, and the first companions of the founder of the Societ y of Jesus. It w société de Jésus Religious order to which Peter Canisius belonged. as he who received their vows at Mon tmartre, o Montmartre Site of the beheading of Denis and his companions. n the feast day of the Assumption, 1534.

Ignatius was assigned Rome along with the general government of the new company; Xa vier w Xavier Apostle of the Indies and companion of Peter Faber. as sent to the Indies and Japan; Lefèvre upheld the faith in Germany and founded several colleges.

When the Council of Trent opened, he was appointed theologian to the Pope for the great assembly; but he died in Rom e on Rome Birthplace of Maximian. the 1st day of August 1546. He left such a reputation for holiness that Saint Ignatius and Saint Francis Xavier, his intimate friends, began to invoke him and together gave him the title of Blessed.

The cottage of Le Villaret, in which Father Lefèvre was born, was so worn by time that it fell from old age; but fourteen years after the death of our great man, two members of his family erected a chapel on the ruins that still remained, and it was Saint Francis de Sales who consecrated the altar in 1607.

Here is what he says about our Blessed one, in his Introduction to the Devout Life: "The famous Pierre Lefèvre, first p riest, first preacher, fi le célèbre Pierre Lefèvre First companion of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. rst professor of theology of the holy Company of Jesus, and first companion of the blessed Ignatius, who was the founder of this Society, returning one day from Germany, where he had worked much for the glory of God, and passing through this diocese, where he was born, recounted that, having crossed several heretical countries, he had always found it very beneficial to salute, upon arriving in a parish, the angels who protected it, and that he owed it visibly to this practice to have escaped the snares of the heretics, and to have found the souls so gentle and so docile to receive the doctrine of salvation: which he said with such a deeply moved air, that a young lady, then very young, having heard him tell this fact himself, repeated it only four years ago, that is to say more than sixty years later, with an extreme feeling of piety: for my part, I was well consoled last year to consecrate an altar at the very place where God caused this holy man to be born, in the small village of Le Villaret, in the middle of our most inaccessible mountains."

The chapel of Le Villaret has been repaired anew in recent years. The parish priest of Saint-Jean de Sixte, who is its rector, must go there at least forty-five times each year to celebrate the holy sacrifice.

Abbé Ducis, the learned and industrious archivist of Haute-Savoie, found, in the early days of 1872, authentic proof of another chapel that had been dedicated to Blessed Pierre Lefèvre, in the company of Blessed Amadeus IX of Savoy, in Annecy, in 1660, in the General Hospital of Provence, very close to another chapel where Saint Francis de Sales had received the vows of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal and her first two companions, in 1610. This ecclesiastic, zealous for the glory of the saints of God, hastened to send an approved act of this to the Reverend Father Boero, postulator of the cause of Blessed Pierre, in Rome. We have borrowed the preceding from the various notes that Abbé Ducis kindly addressed to us and from the work of Abbé Grobel, entitled: *Notre-Dame de Savoie*.

The Abbey of Entremont was fortunate enough to acquire a whole treasure of relics of the Apostles and a great number of Saints. Popular local chronicles say that the courier carrying the precious burden of these relics, arriving ahead of the driver, headed straight for the abbey church. As the doors were closed, he struck them with his foot and they immediately opened of their own accord. The pious thought was had to have some of these relics embedded in a statue of Mary, which from then on became the object of a very special devotion under the name of Our Lady of All the Saints of Entremont.

The statue of Our Lady of Entremont and its relics fortunately escaped the revolutionary usage of the last century, and the devotion of former days has survived the years. Pilgrims flock to the foot of the blessed statue, particularly from the Assumption to the Nativity of Our Lady, a period during which a plenary indulgence is granted to devout visitors.