Blessed Antoine Chevrier

Antoine Chevrier, TOSF (16 April 1825 – 2 October 1879) was a French Catholic priest and a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis. He founded the Institute of the Prado with its two branches: the Sisters of Prado and the Institute of the Priests of Prado. His entire life and pastoral mission was devoted to the service of the poor and the education of poor children and those on the peripheries. He was beatified on 4 October 1986 during Pope John Paul II's visit to France. Antoine Chevrier was born on Easter on 16 April 1825. He was the sole child born to his parents and received baptism on the following 18 April. From his father he inherited a humble spirit and gentleness while he received from his mother a passionate and energetic disposition. He had his First Communion in 1837. In 1840 - at the age of fourteen - a parish priest asked him if he wanted to become a priest himself. Chevrier never thought about it but said he would like to. He felt immediate happiness in this realization and decided to become a priest. Chevrier commenced his studies for the priesthood at the age of seventeen in 1842. He received the cassock in October 1846 and received the tonsure in 1847. Prior to his being made a priest he wanted to join the foreign missions but his mother opposed and said to him: "You are an ingrate, mister, a bad son. Do you think I raised you for you to be eaten by savages? Savages you can fin in Lyon! If you go in spite of me, I will disown you as my child". He was ordained to the priesthood on 25 May 1850 from Cardinal Louis Jacques Maurice de Bonald and was sent to Saint-André de la Guillotière as an assistant priest where he became obsessed with the miserable conditions of the poor that he encountered. On suffering he wrote: "Do you know what makes men? Suffering, hardships, mortifications. The man who has not suffered knows nothing - he is a limp noodle".