L'Abbé Pierre

Abbé Pierre

Founder

Henri Grouès,  Abbé Pierre, he was born on August 5, 1912 in Lyon and died on January 22, 2007 in Paris, he was a French Catholic priest.

he is the founder of the Emmaüs fight  against exclusion the movement including the Fondation Abbé-Pierre for the housing the most deprived and many other associations

Abbé-Pierre and Emmaus

He founded the Emmaus movement in 1949. This movement is a secular organization fighting exclusion, present today in 36 countries of the world. He thus begins from the summer of 1949 to found the Emmaus community of Neuilly-Plaisance.

The meeting with George, desperate who has lost all reason to live, and to whom Abbé Pierre asks “Come and help me” marks, however, the true founding act of the Emmaus movement

Abbé Pierre acquired his fame from the very cold winter of 1954, a murderer for the homeless.

On 1 February 1954, he launched a memorable appeal on Radio-Luxembourg’s antennae, which would become famous under the name of «Abbé Pierre’s call».

The 1954 call attracted volunteers from all over France to help with redistribution, but also to found the first groups

On 23 March 1954, with these donations, he founded the Emmaus Association, with the aim of regrouping all the Emmaus communities. However, the Emmaüs association will quickly lose this role of federation of the Emmaüs groups, to focus on the management of the Emmaüs shelters and reception centres in Paris and its region.

The Emmaus movement then developed rapidly throughout the world, in response to Abbé Pierre’s travels, mainly to France and Latin America.

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