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[email protected]/provincialsecretarynortheast@gm GPA/32–Circular – September 2018 Dear Confreres, WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY FEAST OF OUR BELOVED FOUNDER, FR PETER MARIE MERMIER, THE SERVANT OF GOD! Fr Peter Marie Mermier, the Servant of God, was born on August 28, 1790 at Vouray in the parish of Chaumont en Genevois in Savoy. The Church in Savoy was badly affected by French Revolution and many priests left the country while a few went into hiding. The revolutionaries had closed churches and schools. Fr Peter Mermier had his primary education at the hands of his own mother, a woman of noble character, of whom he later said: “I repent for not having written anything about my mother. My God how much I owe her! No, no, she was not an ordinary woman” (Cf. Srs Maria Goretti and Berchmans,Trs, Family Annals, Trichy: The Printing House, 2009 - 4th Edition, p. 9). He did his secondary school studies as a boarder in Melan. In 1807 he joined the Major Seminary at Chambery. He was fervent in prayer, and a hard worker with genuine concern and love for his companions. He was ordained priest on March 21, 1813 at the age of twenty-three- and-half. His first appointment was at Magland as Assistant Parish Priest to Canon Desjacques. There he made two rules for himself on poverty and chastity. 1. Poverty: “As much as it depends on me, I will have a room without any tapestry or decoration.