Andrew Fournet

Andrew Fournet (1752–1834) was a priest who, with St. Elizabeth Bichier, established the Congregation of the Daughters of the Holy Cross. 
He was born near Poitiers in 1752. He was bored by many things, including religion, as a youth. However, he was later influenced by one of his uncles, a rural pastor, and later became a priest himself, and eventually the parish priest of his hometown Maillé. 
Upon the arrival of the French Revolution, he refused to take the oath for the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, and continued his now illegal ministry in secret. On Good Friday, 1792, he was arrested for his activities. He declined being taken to jail in a carriage, saying since the day Christ carried his cross it behoved his followers to travel on foot. He would escape, at one point taking the place of a dead body on a bier. 
He made the acquaintance of Elizabeth Bichier, and collaborated with her in the establishment of her new religious congregation, the Daughters of the Cross. He even drew up the monastic rule the new congregation would follow. He is said to have miraculously multiplied food for the members of the new congregation and their charges a number of times. 
He retired from his parish duties in 1820, but continued to direct the sisters of the new congregation until his death in 1834.
==Veneration==
He was canonized as a saint in 1933. His feast day, formerly on May 13, is now celebrated on May 16, the day of his death.
==References==
Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. ISBN 0-140-51312-4.
Category:1752 births
Category:1834 deaths
Category:Founders of Roman Catholic religious communities
Category:French Roman Catholic priests
Category:Roman Catholic saints
Category:18th-century Roman Catholic priests
Category:19th-century Roman Catholic priests
Category:19th-century Christian saints
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