Maurin, Peter (1877-1949), was a French-born philosopher . In 1933, he cofounded the Catholic Worker social movement with the American radical journalist and activist Dorothy Day . Radicalism is a philosophy concerned with eliminating injustices in society.
Aristide Pierre Maurin was born on May 9, 1877, into a large peasant family in the Languedoc region of southern France . He was educated by the Christian Brothers, a Roman Catholic order (religious community) that emphasizes humility, simplicity, and service to the poor. Maurin became active in French Catholic social movements that promoted democracy, equality, and fair treatment of laborers. But he disagreed with some of their power-seeking political activities.
In 1909, Maurin moved to Canada as a homesteader—that is, a farmer given land by the government to encourage settlement. In 1911, he moved to the United States , where he worked as an industrial laborer and part-time teacher of French. He was deeply committed to Catholic social teaching that emphasized the relevance of the Gospels and the tradition of certain Catholic saints to modern economic problems. He began promoting his ideas on the streets of New York City and elsewhere. In 1932, the editor of the Catholic magazine Commonweal encouraged Maurin to meet Dorothy Day, a convert to Catholicism. Maurin urged Day to start a Catholic newspaper that would advocate better treatment for the poor and unemployed and bring Catholic social teaching to the average person. The Catholic Worker, a monthly paper, was first published on May 1, 1933. It sold for one cent per copy.
Maurin’s three-point program for the Catholic Worker movement included “houses of hospitality” to feed and shelter the poor; round-table discussions to advocate Catholic social teaching; and agronomic universities, rural farm communes that served as models for a simpler, more just society. Maurin became best known for his “easy essays,” brief writings that summarize his Catholic social philosophy. These writings were published regularly in The Catholic Worker, and later in several short books. An example of an “easy essay” follows.
For a Christian, voluntary poverty is the ideal as exemplified by St. Francis of Assisi, while private property is not an absolute right, but a gift which as such can not be wasted, but must be administered for the benefit of God’s children.
Maurin also emphasized what he called “the gentle personalism of traditional Catholicism,” by which he meant that all people should be treated with kindness and love regardless of their wealth or role in society. He especially stressed the dignity of the poor and unemployed and insisted they should be called “ambassadors of God” rather than such harsh labels of the day as “tramp” or “bum.”
In the 1930’s and early 1940’s, Maurin spent much of his time traveling around the United States and speaking to Catholic Workers and other Catholic groups. He suffered a minor stroke in 1944, then spent the rest of his life at Maryfarm, a Catholic Worker retreat in Newburgh, New York . He died there on May 15, 1949. Maurin’s “easy essays” are still widely read, and some houses of hospitality are named after him.
