Saint Peter Fourier

Peter Fourier was born in 1565 in Mirecourt, in the Duchy of Lorraine, and became a canon regular of Saint Augustine. In 1597 he was sent to the neglected parish of Mattaincourt, where for some thirty years he was a tireless pastor, teaching catechism, visiting the sick and even setting up a fund to lend money to the poor. With Blessed Alix Le Clerc he founded the Congregation of Notre Dame, which opened free schools for girls, and he also reformed the canons regular of Lorraine. Forced into exile because of wartime politics, he died at Gray on December 9, 1640, and was canonized in 1897.

He was known as "the good father of Mattaincourt," where the basilica dedicated to him keeps his relics. His sisters of Notre Dame still run schools today.