St Peter Chanel

On Jul 12, 1803, in the hamlet of La Potière, near Montrevel-en-Bresse, France, Peter Chanel was born to Claude-François Chanel and Marie-Anne Sibellas, their fifth child. Three more siblings were to come. A few days later, Jul 16, in the main parish church of Montrevel, baby Peter was baptised. 

The Chanel family lived in the little country hamlet of La Potière in France, not all that far from the mountains near Switzerland. Claude Chanel was a farmer. He had some sheep and a few cows and grew some crops as well. His wife, Marie-Anne, was not a well-educated woman. She couldn’t read or write, but she had a very strong Catholic faith. They had three children before a fourth one died, so when she found herself pregnant a fifth time Madame Chanel dedicated the child in her womb to the Blessed Virgin Mary. A healthy baby boy was born, and they called him Peter.

Years later, when Peter heard about what his mother had done, he added the name, Mary, and became Peter Mary Chanel. Later still, he chose the confirmation name of a young Jesuit saint whom he admired very much: St Aloysius Gonzaga. And so we have Peter Aloysius Mary Chanel.        

Also in July, twenty-four years later, on Jul 15, 1827, Peter Chanel was ordained priest by Bishop Alexander Devie in the provincial city of Bourg-en-Bresse, soon to join the infant Society of Mary and become one of its first missionaries — and its first martryr and saint. 

For a short history of St Peter Chanel, click here.  For ‘A Marist reflects on St Peter Chanel’, click here                        [Jul 12]