Pierre Fourier

Saint Peter Fourier, C.R.S.A.
Polychromed 18th-century statue in the former Abbey Church of Moyenmoutier, Vosges, France
Canon Regular and Religious founder
Born	30 November 1565 Mirecourt, Duchy of Lorraine, Holy Roman Empire
Died	9 December 1640 (aged 75) Gray, County of Burgundy, Holy Roman Empire
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church (Diocese of Nancy, Order of Canons Regular and the Canonesses Regular of Notre-Dame)
Beatified	1730, Rome, Papal States, by Pope Benedict XIII
Canonized	1897, Rome, Kingdom of Italy, by Pope Leo XIII
Feast	9 December
Attributes	Chaplet, pictures of the Virgin Mary

Peter Fourier, C.R.S.A. (French: Pierre Fourier, pronounced: [fuʁje]; 30 November 1565 – 9 December 1640) was a French canon regular who is honored as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. Forgoing offers of high office, he served for many years as an exemplary pastor in the village of Mattaincourt in the Vosges. He was a strong proponent of free education and also helped to found a religious congregation of canonesses regular dedicated to the care of poor children, developing a new pedagogy for this.

Fourier was born on 30 November 1565 in the village of Mirecourt, in what was then the Duchy of Lorraine, a part of the Holy Roman Empire (now the French department of Vosges), which was a bulwark of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. He was the eldest of the three sons of a cloth merchant and his wife, who were faithful Catholics. At the age of 15, his father enrolled him in the new Jesuit University of Pont-à-Mousson (eventually merged into the University of Lorraine).

In 1585 Fourier was admitted to the novitiate of the canons regular of the Abbey of Chaumousey, where he made his profession of vows two years later. He was ordained a priest at Treves, at the extraordinary age of 23 on 24 February 1589. His abbot then sent him back to the University of Pont-à-Mousson to further his studies. He became a scholastic theologian who knew the Summa Theologica by heart, and earned the great respect of both the university officials and the Count-Bishop of Metz, who offered him a high ecclesiastical post. Fourier chose, instead, to return to his abbey.