Pierre Favre (1506‐1546), born in a village on the slopes of the Alps, didn't want to be a shepherd. Instead he took the long way round, and after several hundred years became a saint.
He was for a time the most wanted man in Europe. The kings of Portugal and Spain and the nobility of Parma and Cologne fought for his counsel. The Vatican ordered him to Germany to save the souls of Reformers. Future saints, like Francis Borgia and Peter Canisius, sought him out as a spiritual director. Friends from his days as a student, Francis Xavier and Ignatius Loyola, called on him to help them build the Jesuits, a new religious order for the age of discovery.
Yet for hundreds of years after Xavier and Loyola were canonised, Favre was only remembered by the small community of Villaret, the village where he was born. How did such a man, beloved by so many, fade from view?
Brendan Comerford SJ's new biography of Favre, By Way of the Heart, has an answer: Favre followed his heart. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he focused not on theology but on the 'affective' dimension: it is the heart that comes first, and the intellect later. Favre put people first. The people he changed, changed the world. But he was overlooked.
By Way of the Heart is not just the story of Favre's many travels but is also a study of his heart: sensitive, discerning, gentle, obedient. He never gave up on anyone. He didn't rage against those who thought differently; he spoke directly to their hearts. Neither Martin Luther nor the king of England nor even the Ottoman emperor was lost to Favre. He prayed for them all.
In 2013, the world finally recognised what the people of Villaret had known for generations: this man was a saint.
