Peter Maurin was a Roman Catholic social activist who founded the Catholic Worker Movement

Catholic Worker Movement

The Catholic Worker Movement is a collection of autonomous communities of Catholics and their associates founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933. Its aim is to "live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ." One of its guiding principles is hospitality towards those on...

 in 1933 with Dorothy Day

Dorothy Day

Dorothy Day was an American journalist, social activist and devout Catholic convert; she advocated the Catholic economic theory of Distributism. She was also considered to be an anarchist, and did not hesitate to use the term...

.

Maurin expressed his ideas through short pieces of verse that became known as
He was born Aristide Pierre Maurin into a poor farming family in the village of Oultet

Saint-Julien-du-Tournel

Saint-Julien-du-Tournel is a commune in the Lozère department in southern France.-References:* *...

 in the Languedoc

Languedoc

Languedoc is a former province of France, now continued in the modern-day régions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées in the south of France, and whose capital city was Toulouse, now in Midi-Pyrénées. It had an area of approximately 42,700 km² .-Geographical Extent:The traditional...

 region of southern France, where he was one of 24 children. After spending time in the De La Salle Brothers

Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools

The Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools is a Roman Catholic religious teaching congregation, founded in France by Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle and now based in Rome...

, Maurin served in the Sillon

Le Sillon

Le Sillon was a French political and religious movement founded by Marc Sangnier which existed from 1894 to 1910...

 movement of Marc Sangnier

Marc Sangnier

Marc Sangnier was a French Roman Catholic thinker and politician, who in 1894 founded le Sillon , a liberal Catholic movement. He aimed to bring Catholicism into a greater conformity with French Republican ideals and to provide an alternative to anticlerical labour movements...

 until he became discouraged by the Sillonist shift from personalist action towards political action.