Peter Faber

Saint Peter Faber, S.J.
Co-founder of the Society of Jesus
Priest, Founder
Born	13 April 1506 Villaret, Duchy of Savoy Holy Roman Empire
Died	1 August 1546(1546-08-01) (aged 40) Rome, Papal States
Venerated in	Catholic Church (Society of Jesus)
Beatified	5 September 1872, Rome, Kingdom of Italy, by Pope Pius IX
Canonized	17 December 2013 (equivalent canonization), Vatican City by Pope Francis
Feast	1 August

Saint Peter Faber, S.J. (French: Pierre Lefevre or Favre, Spanish: Pedro Fabro, Latin: Petrus Faver) (13 April 1506 – 1 August 1546) was the first Jesuit priest and theologian, who was also a co-founder of the Society of Jesus. Pope Francis announced his canonization on 17 December 2013.

Faber was born in 1506 to a peasant family in the village of Villaret, in the Duchy of Savoy (now Saint-Jean-de-Sixt in the French Department of Haute-Savoie). As a boy, he was a shepherd in the high pastures of the French Alps. He had little education, but a remarkable memory; he could hear a sermon in the morning and then repeat it verbatim in the afternoon for his friends. Two of his uncles were Carthusian priors. At first, he was entrusted to the care of a priest at Thônes and later to a school in the neighboring village of .

In 1525, Faber went to Paris to pursue his studies. He was admitted to the Collège Sainte-Barbe, the oldest school in the University of Paris, where he shared his lodgings with a Francis Xavier. There Faber's spiritual views began to develop, influenced by a combination of popular devotion, Christian humanism, and late medieval scholasticism. Faber and Xavier became close friends and both received the degree of Master of Arts on the same day in 1530. At the university, Faber also met Ignatius of Loyola and became one of his associates. He tutored Loyola in the philosophy of Aristotle, while Loyola tutored Faber in spiritual matters. Faber wrote of Loyola's counsel: "He gave me an understanding of my conscience and of the temptations and scruples I had had for so long without either understanding them or seeing the way by which I would be able to get peace..." Xavier, Faber, and Loyola all became roommates at the University of Paris and are all recognized by the Jesuits as founders of the Society of Jesus.