Peter Faber

Peter Faber, SJ (13 April 1506 – 1 August 1546) was a Savoyard Catholic priest and theologian who helped found the Society of Jesus alongside Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier. Pope Francis declared him a saint in 2013.

Early life

Faber grew up in a peasant family in the Alpine village of Villaret, in what is now Haute-Savoie, France. As a boy he worked as a shepherd and had little formal schooling, but possessed an exceptional memory—he could repeat a sermon word-for-word hours after hearing it. Two of his uncles were Carthusian priors. He was initially placed with a priest in Thônes, then attended a school in La Roche-sur-Foron.

In 1525 he went to Paris, studying at the Collège Sainte-Barbe, the University of Paris’s oldest college. There he shared lodgings with Francis Xavier, and the two became close friends, earning their Master of Arts degrees on the same day in 1530. At the university Faber also met Ignatius of Loyola.

Faber tutored Loyola in Aristotle’s philosophy, while Loyola guided Faber in spiritual matters. Faber later wrote that Loyola helped him understand his conscience and long-standing scruples. The three eventually became roommates and are all recognized as founders of the Jesuits.

Faber was the first of the original group to be ordained a priest, on 30 May 1534. He and Loyola’s five companions made religious vows at Montmartre that August. When Loyola returned to Spain to convalesce, he put Faber in charge of leading the others to Venice.

Jesuit preacher

They arrived in January 1537, but war between Venice and the Turks prevented their planned mission to the Holy Land. Instead they formed the community that became the Society of Jesus, then traveled to Rome to offer their services to Pope Paul III. After preaching and teaching for several months, Faber was sent to Parma and Piacenza, where he revived Christian piety.

Recalled to Rome in 1540, Faber was dispatched to Germany for the Diet of Worms and the Diet of Ratisbon in 1541. The theologian Johann Cochlaeus noted that Faber avoided theological disputes, focusing instead on personal reform, and called him “a master of the life of the affections.” Faber was disturbed by the unrest caused by the Protestant movement and the decay he saw in the Catholic hierarchy. He concluded that the solution was not debating Protestants but reforming the clergy.

For ten months in Speyer, Ratisbon, and Mainz, he acted with gentleness, influencing princes, prelates, and priests. He was known not for his preaching but for his engaging conversations and spiritual guidance. He traveled across Europe on foot, directing bishops, nobles, and common people in the Spiritual Exercises.

Faber felt accompanied even when alone, believing he walked among saints and angels. He would ask the saint of the day and all the saints to obtain virtues and salvation, as well as physical strength and healing.

His guardian angel was his chief ally. When entering a new town, he invoked the angels and saints associated with that place, trusting in a spiritual army at his side. He also prayed for the guardian angel of each person he met, hoping to draw them closer through spiritual friendship.

Called to Spain by Loyola, Faber visited Barcelona, Zaragoza, Medinaceli, Madrid, and Toledo. In January 1542 the pope ordered him back to Germany, where he worked for reform in Speyer, Mainz, and Cologne for nineteen months. The Archbishop of Cologne, Hermann of Wied, was leaning toward Lutheranism and later publicly embraced it. Faber gradually won the trust of the clergy and recruited many young men to the Jesuits, including Peter Canisius.

After time in Leuven in 1543, where he fostered vocations, he returned to Cologne. Between 1544 and 1546 he worked in Portugal and Spain. At the royal court in Lisbon, he helped establish the Society of Jesus in Portugal. In Spain he preached in major cities, stirring fervor.