Tuesday was the Feast of Peter Faber (Favre), SJ, sometimes called “the second Jesuit” because he was especially close to Ignatius when the order was getting started. Peter was looking for direction in life when he ran into Ignatius. He was overwhelmed with choices, like a young person today:
I was always very unsure of myself and blown about by many winds: sometimes wishing to be married, sometimes a doctor, sometimes a lawyer, sometimes a professor of theology, sometimes a cleric without a degree–at times wishing me to be a monk.
He found his purpose in life through the Spiritual Exercises, directed by Ignatius.
Fr. Jim Martin, SJ, says that the relationship between Peter and Ignatius shows that friends need not be cut from the same cloth. Faber was from a humble background and professed a simple faith: “One friend had seen little of the world; the other much. One had always found religion a source of solace; the other had proceeded to God along a tortuous path.”
