Emmaus International
The first Companion
Emmaus was started in Paris in 1949 by Father Henri-Antoine Groues, better known as the Abbé Pierre, a Catholic priest and MP. During the Second World War he had been a member of the French Resistance; after the war had finished he began to fight for the rights of those who found themselves homeless.
One night, a man called Georges was brought to the Abbé Pierre. Homeless and despairing, he had tried to commit suicide in the Seine. The Abbé Pierre did not just offer him a place to sleep. He asked for his help. He told Georges of the homeless men and women who came to him for help and how he could not cope with the problem on his own. Could Georges join him in his mission to help them?
Georges became the first Emmaus Companion, living with the Abbé Pierre and helping him to build temporary homes for those in need. He later said ‘Whatever else he might have given me – money, home, somewhere to work – I’d have still tried to kill myself again. What I was missing, and what he offered, was something to live for.’
Working for a living
In 1951, Abbé Pierre resigned as an MP. He no longer had a salary to support 18 men who now formed the first Community and were still building homes for those who desperately needed them. To raise the money they needed, the men became ‘rag pickers’, taking things that people no longer wanted and selling them on. So the concept of Companions running self-supporting businesses, with the profits going to those in greater need was born.
Spreading the word
One January day in 1954 the Abbé Pierre learnt that the baby of a homeless couple had frozen to death in the night. Some days later he heard that an old woman had died of hypothermia on the streets having been evicted from her home.
Angered by these needless deaths, Abbé Pierre sent an open letter to newspapers and made a radio appeal to the nation. The French public responded and gifts and support flooded in.
Emmaus Communities opened across France. The Abbé Pierre travelled the world spreading the word of Emmaus, causing Communities to be established in mainland Europe, French West Africa, the Far East and South America.
By 1990, when Emmaus arrived in Britain, there were Emmaus Communities in 38 countries around the world. In 2004, the Emmaus Movement includes 299 members and 122 associated groups spread out over 5 continents (Africa, South America, North America, Asia, and Europe). You can find out more about Emmaus International's work around the world on their web site. Information can also be found on the activities of Emmaus in Europe on their web site.
Click here to read about Emmaus in the UK.
