In Search of the Family Maurin

By Matthieu Langlois & James Murphy

In 2018, I had the pleasure of meeting James Murphy at the 85th anniversary of the Catholic Worker in Rochester, NY. Being a French-speaker, I have to confess that I was glad to
find someone with whom I could exchange in my mother tongue. I was also thrilled to encounter
someone who was passionate about the life and work of Peter Maurin, co-founder of the
Catholic Worker Movement.

We rapidly agreed that while amazing works had been written by scholars about Maurin,
we needed to look more carefully at his life in France. Many of the ideas and influences that
helped form the Catholic Worker movement were born in France. More research had to be
done, particularly in regard to his involvement with “Le Sillon” (The Furrow), a Christian
movement that tried to reconcile Catholicism and Democracy at a time when many French
Catholic politicians were more sympathetic to authoritarian ideology.

We also wanted more details about Peter Maurin’s family. Peter often mentioned that he
was the oldest of twenty-three children. Who were they? What were their names? What did they
accomplish during their lifetimes?

In The Long Loneliness, Dorothy Day wrote that some Maurin men had followed Peter’s lead and joined the LaSallian Brothers. Dorothy also said that his youngest half-sister had become a nun and was “head of a school in Bolivia”. Although interesting, this information was not enough to satisfy our curiosity.

We started doing our own research and found that among his twenty-three brothers and
sisters, six had entered religious life. Three men with the LaSallian Brothers and three sisters
with the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. According to Maurin family
legend, the high number of religious vocations in the family are attributed to a visit from St.
Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, where he blessed the home of their mother’s—Marie Page’s—ancestors circa 1712.

If the piety of the Maurin family played an important part in the choice of these six men
and women to enter religious life, we also have to consider other factors, like the specific
character of the Lozère region, where the family came from. Although Lozère is a small region,
it has produced eight saints and one Pope (Blessed Urban V). Patrick Cabanel pointed out in
his book Cadets de Dieu (God’s Cadets), during the nineteenth century many young people of
Lozère chose to embrace religious life. This was due in part to the strong presence of several
religious orders, among them the LaSallian Brothers (founded by St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle)
and the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary.

These two orders had a particularly strong influence in the region, because of the high
number of schools they administered. These congregations were also very active in trying to
recruit new candidates, because they needed more people to be sent as missionaries. The
Maurins were no exception to that. Maurin missionaries were sent to Belgium, Luxembourg,
Spain, England, the island of Guernsey, Mexico, Bolivia, Chile and Peru.

Our goal is to give you a brief overview of these six people, hoping it will make you feel a
bit closer to Peter Maurin’s French family. To do so, we have contacted the archivists of the
LaSallian Brothers and the Congregation of the Sacred Heart, who had the kindness to share
the details of their lives. We wrote a short biography for each one of them, based on the
documents we had access to.

Célestin (1878-1948)
Célestin was the second son of Jean-Baptiste Maurin and Marie Pages. Like Peter, he
spent his youth in the village of Oultet, dividing his time between school and working in the fields
with his family. In 1892, he left for the city of Mende, where he started his religious formation
with the LaSallian Brothers at their “little novitiate.” A year later, he joined Peter just outside
Paris in the city of Buzenval to pursue his training with the Brothers. In 1895, he made his first
vows and took the name of Alix-Laurent. It is interesting to note that although Célestin joined the
LaSallian Brothers after Peter, he was officially received before him. Looking at the archives, it is
written that Célestin professed his vows in May 1895 while for Peter it was a few months later in
September. After making his vows, Célestin completed his studies to become a teacher and
was assigned to the school of St. Nicolas in the city of Igny. Because of the law that was voted
in 1905 by the French government to laicize education, Célestin decided with other Brothers to move to Spain. In 1908, he was sent to Puebla, in Mexico, to teach at the Colegio San Pedro y
San Pablo. Like Peter he seems to have been interested in economics, because he developed
a business course. His obituary states that during this period, he wrote for himself a series of
“Conversations with the youth”. It would be interesting to compare these “Conversations” with
Peter’s “Easy Essays” to see if there are similarities in their form, but also in the topics and the
authors mentioned.

In 1914, because of the political turmoil in Mexico, Célestin was forced to
come back to France. During the First World War, he served in the infantry, before being
captured by German troops. He spent two years in Germany as a prisoner, first in the city of
Darmstadt and then Hocht. After the Armistice, he made his way back to Paris. His desire was
to go back to Mexico, but his superiors decided to appoint him to the school of La
Rochefoucauld, in Paris. He stayed at La Rochefoucauld for more than 25 years serving
several functions like teaching or managing the finances of the school. In 1946, after suffering from a stroke, he was sent to the city of Athis LaSallian Brothers-run senior residence. He died
there two years later during evening Mass on May 26th, 1948 at the age of 70.

In 1955, the Catholic Worker received a letter that Célestin had sent to Peter in 1946.
Célestin gave the letter to an American who was leaving Paris. The letter got lost and finally
ended up in the hands of Ralph Morette from New Jersey, who forwarded it to the Catholic
Worker. In his letter, Célestin congratulated Peter for his work in the United States. It seems that
he had been made aware of Peter’s work through the book “La Révolution Verte” (The Green
Révolution) that a Belgian priest, Fr. Robert Kothen, published in 1939 about the Catholic
Worker. Célestin also gave some news about his brothers and sisters, but the most touching
part is when he told Peter that he would be pleased to have a visit from him. Unfortunately this
never happened and we are left to imagine what this reunion would have looked like.

Anselme (1894-1913)
Like the ensuing brothers and sisters, Anselme was the son of Jean-Baptiste Maurin and his
second wife Rosalie Bousquet. He was born on May 13th, 1894. Unfortunately, very little is
known about him because he died young from a pulmonary disease, most likely tuberculosis.
Like Peter and Célestin before him, he joined the LaSallians Brothers in his teens in 1907. Due
to his poor health, he had to wait until 1910 to be officially accepted as a novice. He was then
sent to Bettange-sur-Mess in Luxembourg to start his training. Two years later, he moved to the
city of Hall in Belgium, where he professed his religious vows and took the name of
Norbert-Ambroise. He sadly passed away a few months later at the age of nineteen.

Julien (1896-1984)
Born on 15th October, 1894, Julien was the 15th child of the Maurin family. When he was 11
years old, a LaSallian Brother came to visit his father to ask him if he would consider sending
Julien to one of their novitiates to start his religious training. Even though this might be strange
for us, as Patrick Cabanel has showed, it was a common practice in the Lozere region at the
end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century to have someone from a
religious congregation (especially the LaSallian Brothers) going from one village to another
trying to foster vocations. Jean-Baptiste said that he had already two sons in this congregation
and three others being conscripted in the army. He needed Julien to help him with the farm.
However, if he came back in a few years, he would reconsider his offer. Three years later,
another brother visited the family and made another inquiry to Jean-Baptiste. This time he
accepted the offer. In 1910, Julien started his novitiate in the city of Vals-près-le-Puy in the
Upper Loire region. He was then sent to Premia de Mar in Spain. This is where he made his first
religious vows and took the name Norberto-Bautista. It seems that at that time, the LaSallian Brothers had intended to send him to South America, but for an unknown reason he was
instead assigned to the city of Warchin in Belgium. This is where he spent the First World War.
Because he was outside of France when the war started and the French government was not
able to locate him and he was declared AWOL. He was located and cleared by the French
army in 1916. Three years later, he started his teaching career in the city of Passy-Froyennes
just outside Tournay. He taught French and Latin. In 1931, he was assigned to the school of La
Rochefoucauld in Paris, where he joined his brother Célestin. He stayed there eleven years
before being attached to the school of St. Nicolas in Buzenval just outside Paris. In 1953, he
came back to Passy in Belgium, where he left a mark among the youth, not only for his
teaching, but also because he was the first to buy a television for the school. In 1960, he came
back to Paris, where he stayed until his retirement in 1967. That year, he left for Athis, where he
died in 1984 at the age of 88.

Marie-Baptistine (1895-1993)
Marie-Baptistine Maurin was born on July 21, 1895 in Oultet. In 1913, she began her novitiate in
Mende with the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (also known as Picpus). She
made her profession in Paris in 1916 and took the name of Sister Marie-Gonzague. She was
immediately sent to Spain, where her talents were put to use as a teacher in Santander. After
sixteen years beyond the Pyrenees, she returned to France in 1932. For the next sixteen years
she served in several communities including Poitiers, Mende and Sarlat. From 1948 until 1975
she taught in St. Servan, Rennes and Verpillere. She moved back to Poitiers in 1975 where she
lived the rest of her life. It was in Poitiers that she was reunited with her younger sister,
Marie-Dismas, whom she affectionately called “Marinette”. The two sisters, of very different
character, supported each other while keeping their own personalities and their taste for
independence. A day came, however, when the elder had to rely on her younger sister for many
small services. According to her obituary, as she approached the end she would moan in pain,
but she knew how to transform these moans into prayer: “Lord help me to take the last step”.
Her prayer was certainly answered. Marie Gonzague fell asleep peacefully with a statue of the
Virgin near her bedside. She was 98 years old.

Her obituary also included these tender words:
Sister Marie-Gonzague leaves the community and her family with the memory of a person in a
relationship. Relationship with God and with others. Her smile, poetry, song, and gestures that
gave pleasure was her way of expressing her feelings, her faith, and her confidence. Until the
end she retained the ability to marvel. She knew, in general, to see the good side of people and things. We seem to hear her exclaim, in her spontaneity, “Here you are, too!” as she meets the
many members of her family who have preceded her in heaven.

Marie-Clémentine (1904-1998)
Marie-Clémentine was born on January 5, 1904 in Oultet. She entered the Sisters of the
Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary on August 4, 1922. She made her profession on August 4,
1924 and took the name Sr. Marie-Dismas. She was sent first to Chartres, where she stayed for
10 years. She also spent time in Le Mans, Sarlat and Lyon before landing in Nantes and staying
there for 16 years. In 1967 she was moved to Poitiers for the duration of her life. She was a
dedicated nurse and was greatly appreciated by doctors who recognized the correctness of her
diagnosis and always took her opinion into account. According to her obituary, Sr. Marie-Dismas
had a “temperament”. Sometimes a bit pungent, but imbued with humor and infused with the
liveliness of her intelligence. Her sister, Sr. Marie-Gonzague, joined her in Poitiers and
Marie-Dismas accompanied her until the end. Her sister’s death in July of 1993 affected her
greatly.

On January 1, 1995, Marie-Dismas became ill and lived in the infirmary where she herself had
been a nurse. She was known as an easy patient who was very much at ease. The people who
looked after her were struck by her kindness and her expressive gaze. She had great devotion
to Mother Mary, and throughout her stay in the infirmary, an icon of the Annunciation supported
her prayer. Sr. Marie-Dismas died on September 26, 1998 at the age of 94.

Marguerite (1912-2000)
Marguerite Maurin, the baby of the Maurin family, was born on May 21, 1912 in Oultet. She knew the Sisters of the Sacred Heart family from an early age because two of her siblings had
already taken their vows. She entered the order on August 4, 1930 and took the name Sister
Irénée After her studies in Paris, she studied English at the Oxford School in Weymouth,
England. In 1938 she left France for South America where she taught and worked in
administration at boarding schools in Bolivia, Peru and Chile. After eighteen years abroad she
returned to France in 1956. She was sent to Chartres and taught English for twenty-two years.
After forty years of teaching, she was installed in Nantes and Yvetot as superior of both
communities.

Peter Maurin was thirty-five years her senior and had already emigrated to North
America when she was born. While they never met, she certainly had an interest in what her
brother was doing in the United States. Among her possessions found after her death was an
unpublished French translation by her of Arthur Sheehan’s 1959 biography Peter Maurin: Gay
Believer. Sr. Irénée died on September 5, 2000 at the age of 88, one month after celebrating
seventy years as a Sister in her congregation.

Seven of the twenty-four Maurin children took vows with religious orders. One became a nurse and six became teachers, including Peter. Even though Peter left the Brothers, he was a
teacher all his life. He introduced Dorothy Day to the social teachings of the church, the
encyclicals of the Popes and the personalism of French Catholic thinkers. Seventy-one years
after his death, he continues to teach us through his “Easy Essays”. We are still working to
carry out Peter’s Program, still studying his words and the words of others he encouraged us to
read. His siblings were also missionary teachers and we are sure that even though generations
have passed, people all over the world today have been impacted by the service of the Maurins.
St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle is the patron saint of teachers. Perhaps there is some truth to the
Maurin family legend of his visit over three centuries ago.

All you holy Maurin women and men pray for us!