Antoine Chevrier

Antoine Chevrier was born in Lyon, France, in 1826. Raised in a Catholic family of modest circumstances in a city then undergoing rapid industrial change, he entered the seminary of the Archdiocese of Lyon and was ordained to the priesthood in 1850. His first assignment was as a curate at the parish of Saint-André in La Guillotière, a densely populated working-class quarter on the left bank of the Rhône. There he came into daily contact with laborers, migrants, and children who had little religious instruction and lived in harsh material conditions.

A decisive spiritual turning point occurred at Christmas in 1856, when meditation on the poverty of Jesus in the manger convinced him that he must become poor with the poor and that the Church’s first duty was the evangelization of those whom society neglected. He began to gather poor and abandoned children for catechesis, shelter, and a simple Christian formation. In 1860 he obtained a disused ballroom known as Le Prado and converted it into a chapel and a house of formation. From this center he developed a work of popular preaching, first Communion preparation for children of the poorest families, and the training of priests who would share the life of the poor.

Around the Prado there grew a community of priests who adopted a life of evangelical poverty, intense study of the Gospel, and apostolic service among workers and the marginalized. This community became the Institute of the Prado, later recognized as a society of apostolic life. A female branch, the Sisters of the Prado, also emerged from the same inspiration. Chevrier composed a substantial spiritual guide, known as The True Disciple of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in which he set out his ideal of the priest as a man formed by the Gospel, detached from comfort, and wholly given to the poor. He remained a priest of the Lyon diocese while directing this new work.

Worn out by austerity, pastoral labor, and recurring illness, Chevrier died in Lyon in 1879. His reputation for holiness spread in the local Church and among those committed to the apostolate among workers. Pope John Paul II beatified him in Lyon in 1986, presenting him as a model of priestly life in the service of the poor. The Priests of the Prado and the Sisters of the Prado continue his charism in various countries. His feast is observed on 2 October, the anniversary of his death.