St. Peter Faber (BK 051) Plaque

For a man credited with many firsts and one of its three co-founders, St. Peter Faber (1506-1546) is not terribly well known outside Jesuit circles. At first, he was sole college roommate of St. Francis Xavier at the University of Paris. The men were later joined by St. Ignatius Loyola, a former soldier who was fifteen years their senior. St. Peter was St. Ignatius’s first recruit to his nascent Society of Jesus (Jesuits) embracing the Spiritual Exercises; St. Francis, who was intent on an academic career, proved a tougher sell. St. Peter was the first Jesuit priest, being ordained on 30 May 1534. As such, he celebrated the Mass at Monmartre in the underground Chapel of the Martyrs on 15 August later that year during which the first Jesuits took their religious vows. (It is his role as priest that is emphasized in the image here: St. Peter is dressed for Mass in a red chasuble and is about to distribute Holy Communion. The Saint’s facial features conform to contemporary portraits and his pose to several engravings and paintings that memorialise the event.) After Loyola himself, Faber was the most esteemed of the early Jesuits especially in spiritual matters. After the congregation was placed at the disposal of the Pope and its Rule confirmed six years later in 1540, St. Peter tirelessly crisscrossed Europe on foot preaching and teaching in Italy, Germany, Portugal, and Spain—a kind of ‘home’ missionary. His writings exhibit a deep devotion to the angels and the saints. Brought down by a fever and worn out from his labours, St. Peter died in Rome on 1 August 1546, reportedly in the arms of St. Ignatius himself. On 17 December 2013, Pope Francis declared Peter Faber a saint by a process known as ‘equipollent canonisation’, a process that dispenses with standard procedures and ceremonies in the case of someone long venerated. St. Peter Faber was the Pope’s favourite Jesuit. + Feast: August 1 (August 2 among the Jesuits) + Image Credit (BK 051): Antique image of B[lessed now Saint] Petrus [Peter] Faber, S.J., originally published in chromolithography by B. Kühlen, Mönchengladbach, Germany, unnumbered Jesuit Series, late 19th century, from the designer’s private collection of religious ephemera. The Saint’s red chasuble is an example of artistic license: the liturgical colour of vestment for the Feast of the Assumption is and was white.