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Peter Maurin an idealistic Roman Catholic social activist worked with Dorthy Day in the slums of New York City establishing the Catholic Workers Movement.
He was born into a poor farming family in southern France, where he was one of 24 children. Maurin served in the Sillon movement of Marc Sanger until he became disillusioned. He briefly tried his hand at homesteading in Saskatchewan. That ended when his partner was killed in a hunting accident. He than traveled through out the eastern States for a few years, eventually settling in New York City. For a ten year period Maurin left his catholic faith, "because I was not living as a Catholic should."
In the mid-1920s, Maurin was working as a French tutor in the New
York suburbs. It was at this time Maurin experienced a religious
conversion. Inspired by the life of Francis of Assisi he ceased charging for his lessons and asked only that students give as they thought appropriate. During this portion of his life, he began composing the poetry that would later be called his Easy Essays
Peter Maurin Dorothy Day meet for the first time in December of1932.On returning to New York from Washington, D.C., where she had covered the Hunger March for Commonwealth and America magazines. she walked into her apartment to find Maurin waiting her in
the kitchen. He had read some of her articles and had been told by then editor of Commonwealth, George Shluter, to look her up and exchange ideas.
The first four months were spent mainly with Maurin , sharing ideas, synopses of books and articles, and analyzing all
facets of daily life through the lens of his intellectual system.
He suggested since she had a journalistic back ground, she start a newspaper, to "bring the best of Catholic thought to the man in the street in the
language of the man in the street". May 1 1933, the heart of the Great Depression saw the 1st edition of the Catholic Worker hit the streets.
Maurin's ideas served as the inspiration for the creation of "houses of hospitality" for the poor, the agrarian endeavors of the Catholic Worker farms, and the
regular "roundtable discussions for the clarification of thought" that
began taking place shortly after the publication of the first issue of CW
.Maurin believed the Catholic Worker should stress life in small agricultural communities. As he liked to say, “there is no unemployment on the land.” He lived much of his life in Easton Pennsylvania where he worked on Maryfarm the first Catholic Worker-owned farming commune.
During the 30's and early forties he spent much of his time taking part in many the Catholic Worker sponsered protests, traveling and lecturing extensively at parishes, colleges, and
meetings across the country, often in coordination with the speaking
tours of Dorothy Day.
In 1944, Maurin began to lose his memory. His condition deteriorated until he died at Maryfarm on May 15, 1949.
