Peter Maurin

Not to be forgotten

St. Gregory the Great Church, a parish in Chicago served by the Conventual Franciscans, is hosting the Peter Maurin Conference this weekend.

Some may ask, “Who was Peter Maurin?”

In short, he was co-founder with Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker newspaper and movement of the same name in 1933.

Day, in her autobiography, The Long Loneliness, wrote that Maurin’s influence changed the course of her life.

For that reason alone, he should not be forgotten.

To learn more of his fascinating life, a brief biography is available on The Catholic Worker website here, but the essence of his spirit and ideas lay in what he called his “Easy Essays” which often promoted philosophical personalism and distributism based on Catholic social teaching.

He wrote dozens of essays, arranging them like short poems, most of which reflected his political views covering a wide range of topics: from agrarianism to education to poverty to warfare, from banking and the economy to the works of mercy.

I’ve read all of them at one time or another, disagreeing with some, but always appreciating his zeal.

Houses of hospitality were, and still are, a hallmark of the Catholic Worker movement — here is one of his essays, titled “Houses of Hospitality” —

Houses of Hospitality

We need Houses of Hospitality
to give to the rich
the opportunity to serve the poor.
We need Houses of Hospitality
to bring the Bishops to the people
and the people to the Bishops.
We need Houses of Hospitality
to bring back to institutions
the technique of institutions.
We need Houses of Hospitality
to show what idealism looks like
when it is practiced.
We need Houses of Hospitality
to bring social justice
through Catholic Action
exercised in Catholic institutions.

One workshop of this weekend’s conference will delve into his essays – that should be interesting.

Peter Maurin’s legacy of hospitality lives on — a Peter Maurin Center can be found in many cities, in addition to Catholic Worker Houses.

Born in France in 1877, Maurin died in Marlborough, New York in 1949. May he rest in peace.