80 Notable Peacemakers in France |
316-397 AD - Martin of Tours - Renounced violence after serving in Roman army. Became Bishop of Tours (France). Called "Soldier of Peace" & patron saint of soldiers.
1412-1431 - Joan of Arc - Semi-legendary as a brave & active woman. Burned at the stake (age 19) but beatified in 1909 & canonized in 1920.
1590-1648 - Eméric Crucé - Monk. Wrote "The New Cyneas" in 1623 proposing that all states meet (preferably in Venice) to create a universal union of all peoples.
1596-1650 - René Descartes - Philosopher, mathematician & writer. Dubbed the "father of modern philosophy."
16001606-1656 - Laurent de La Hyre - Painter. Painted "Peace & Justice Embracing" in 1654.
1607-1646 - Isaac Jogues, SJ - Jesuit priest & missionary. Traveled & worked among Native Americans. Martyred by Mohawks near present day Auriesville, NY.
1637-1675 - Jacques Marquette, SJ - Jesuit priest & missionary. Known as Père Marquette. Founded Sault Ste. Marie & St. Ignace, MI. First European (with Louis Jolilliet) to explore northern Mississippi River.
1647-1706 - Pierre Bayle - Philosopher & writer. Best known for his seminal work the "Dictionnaire Historique et Critique" published beginning in 1697. Advocated the toleration of divergent beliefs.
1658-1743 - Abbé de Saint-Pierre - Writer & radical. One of the first to propose an international organisation for maintaining peace.
1689-1755 - Montesquieu - Social commentator & political thinker. Famous for articulating the theory of separation of powers, now implemented in many constitutions.
1694-1778 - Voltaire (pen name of François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire) - Writer & philosopher. Advocated civil liberties including freedom of religion & free trade.
17001712-1778 - Jean Jacques Rousseau - Philosopher. For religious toleration. Influenced French & American Revolutions. Wrote "Emile" in 1762.
1713-1784 - Denis Diderot - Philosopher, art critic, writer & atheist. Prominent during the Enlightenment. Edited the Encyclopédie with Jean le Rond d'Alembert.
1736-1809 - Thomas Paine - Political activist, philosopher, political theorist & revolutionary. Wrote "Common Sense" (1776) & "Rights of Man" (1791).
1743-1826 - Thomas Jefferson - Wrote the US Declaration of Independence in 1776. Minister to France 1784-89. 3rd US president 1801-09.
1755-1842 - Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun - Painter. Painted "Peace Bringing Back Abundance" in 1780.
1757-1834 - Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette - Aristocrat & military officer. General at age 19 in American Revolutionary War. Leader of Garde nationale during French Revolution.
1760-1825 - Comte Henri de Saint-Simon - Socialist theorist. Wrote "On the Reorganizaiton of European Society" in 1814.
1797-1856 - Heinrich Heine - Romantic poet. Wrote "Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people" in 1821.
1803-1844 - Flora Tristan - Socialist writer & activist. A founder of modern feminism. Grandmother of Paul Gauguin.
1799-1882 - Auguste Francois Biard - Painter. Painted "Slave Trade" in 1840.
18001802-1885 - Victor Hugo. Poet, novelist & dramatist. One of the most well-known Romantic writers. Presided over 2nd International Peace Congress in 1849.
1803-1844 - Flora Tristan - Socialist writer & activist. A founder of modern feminism. Grandmother of Paul Gauguin.
1822-1912 - Frédéric Passy - Economist. Co-founded the Interparliamentary Union in 1889. 1901 with Henry Dunant Conf
1823-1892 - Ernest Renan - Philosopher. Defined nationhood in 1882 ("avoir fait de grandes choses ensemble, vouloir en faire encore").
1832-1907 - Moncure Daniel Conway - Abolitionist & author. Minister of South Place Ethical Society in London (England).
1841-1932 - Ferdinand Buisson - Academic, pacifist & Socialist. Directed Human Rights League 1914-1926. 1927 with Ludwig Quidde
1843-1918 - Louis Renault - Jurist & educator. Famous ionternational arbitrator. 1907 with Ernesto Teodoro Moneta.
18501850-1935 - Charles Richet - Physiologist. Received 1913 Nobel Prize for his work on anaphylaxis. Wrote book on history of the peace movement.
1851-1925 - Léon Bourgeois - Statesman. President of the Council of the League of Nations after WW-I. Conf 1920
1852-1924 - Paul Henri d'Estournelles de Constant - Diplomat & politician. Advocate of international arbitration. 1909
1858-1942 - George Mathias Paraf-Javai - Intransigent individualist. Founded Ligue Antimilitariste. Wrote "Les faux droits de l'homme et les vrais" in 1907. P
1859-1914 - Jean Jaurès - Pacifist & Socialist deputy. Defender of Alfred Dreyfus. Assassinated in a Parisian café at outbreak of World War-I. P
1862-1932 - Aristide Briand - Co-authored the Kellogg-Briand Pact in 1928. 1926 with Gustav Stresemann
1863-1937 - Pierre de Coubertin - Pedagogue & historian. Founded International Olympic Committee. Father of modern Olympic Games.
1863-1944 - Victor Basch - Professor & Zionist. President of Ligue des droits de l'homme 1926-1944. Assassinated by antisemitic Vichy French Milice Française. Wife also killed.
1864-1921 - Émile Arnaud - Lawyer, notary & writer. Proposed the term "pacifism' in 1901 to summarize the peace movement in general. P
1866-1944 - Romain Rolland - Dramatist, novelist, essayist & mystic. Received Nobel Prize for Literature. P 1915
1866-1946 - Jules Guérin - Muralist. Did murals in Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC, & "In Memorium 1914-1918" in Liberty Memorial, Kansas City. Of Huguenot descent.1868-1951 - Émile-Auguste Chartier (Alain) - Philosopher, journalist & pacifist. P
1872-1950 - Leon Blum - Socialist theoretician. Three times prime minister of France.
1875-1908 - Albert Libertad - Individualist anarchist militant & writer. Edited the influential anarchist publication l’Anarchie. P
1875-1965 - Albert Schweitzer - Theologian, organist & physician. Missionary in Africa. Promoted "Reverance for Life." 1952
1877-1949 - Peter Maurin - Co-founded Catholic Worker Movement with Dorothy Day (qv). Played by Martin Sheen in "Entertaining Angels."
1877-1964 - Jeanne Melin - Pacifist. Worked for peace & women's rights. "Conferenciere remarquable, organisatrice infatigable." P
1879-1954 - Leon Jouhaux - Trade union leader. Helped set up International Labour Organization (ILO). 1951
1881-1973 - Pablo Picasso - Artist. Painted "Guernica" in 1937. It's now in Spain with a copy at UN Headquarters.
1882-1973 - Jacques Maritain - Catholic philosopher. A drafter of Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Friend of Saul Alinsky (qv).
1885-1954 - Aristides de Sousa Mendes - Consul General in Bordeaux. Defied Salazar dictatorship by issuing visas in 1940 to refugees fleeing from invading German forces.
1887-1976 - Rene Cassin - Jurist, law prof & judge. Formed pacifist veterans Union Fédérale. Memorial in Forbach (France). P 1968
1887-1985 - Marc Chagall - Stained glass peace windows in Jerusalem, France & New York City (United Nations).1888-1979 - Jean Monnet - Political economist & diplomat. Never elected to public office. "Father of Europe."
1890-1935 - Kurt Tucholsky - Important journalist of Weimar Republic. Satirist. Warned against National Socialism. His books burned by Nazis. P
1893-1918 - Wilfred Owen - Soldier. Leading poet of WW-I. Wrote on horrors of trenches & gas warfare in France.
1894-1967 - Ernst Friedrich - Anarchist. Wrote "War Against War!" in 1924. Operated Anti-War Museum in Berlin 1925-1933. Reopened in 1982. P
1894-1977 - Pierre-Marie Theas - Resisted Nazi occupation. First Bishop President of Pax Christi in 1945.1896-1980 - Gaston Bouthoul - Sociologue français spécialiste du phénomène de la guerre.
19001901-1982 - René Jules Dubos - French-born microbiologist. Pulitzer Prize for "So Human An Animal." Said "Think globally, act locally."
1903-1988 - Hiram Bingham IV - US Vice Consul in Marseille (France). Helped >2,500 Jews flee as Nazi forces advanced.
1908-1983 - Jean Lasserre - Peace theologian. Felowship of Reconciliation. Wrote "War & the Gospel." Influenced Bonhoeffer (qv).
1908-1986 - Simone de Beauvoir - Existentialist philosopher & political activist. Significantly influenced feminist theory. Wrote "The Second Sex" in 1949. Lifelong relationship w/Jean-Paul Sartre.1909-1943 - Simone Weil - Philosopher, Christian mystic & social activist. P
1909-1997 - Virginia d'Albert-Lake - Born in Dayton, Ohio. Hero of the French Resistance. Freed from Ravensbrück concentration camp.1912-1991 - Jean Goss - Evangelical advocate of nonviolence.
1913-1960 - Albert Camus - Author, journalist & key philosopher of the 20th century. Wrote L'Étranger/The Stranger" in 1942.
1913-1973 - Yves de Coëtlogon - Sculptor. Sculpted "Allégorie de la Paix" in 1962.1924-2008 - Pierre Weil - Psychologist, author & educator. Founded City of Peace Foundation in Brazil in 1986.
1926-Alive - Thich Nhat Hanh - Monk, teacher, author, poet & peace activist now based in France. Year?
1927-Alive - Simone Veil - Politician. Survivor of Auschwitz. Honorary Pres of Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah.
1928-Alive - Jean Vanier - Catholic philosopher turned theologian, humanitarian & founder of L'Arche, an international federation of group homes for people with developmental disabilities.
1930-Alive - Hildegard Goss-Mayr - Hon. president of Intl FOR. Sponsor of Intl Decade for Culture of Peace. Wife of Jean Goss (qv).
1931-Alive - Pierre Nora - Intellectual. Criticized "pieds noirs" in Algeria. Editor of multi-volume "Les Lieux de Mémoire" ("Rethinking France").
1934-Alive - Susan George - Political scientist. Anti-war & anti-corporate activist. Pres of Transnational Institute in Amsterdam.
1935-Alive - Peter Watkins - Film & TV director. Pioneer of docudrama. Made Colloden, Edvard Munch, La Commune & "The Journey" (14.5 hrs about the arms race) in 1987.
c1940-Alive - Sybila Arredondo - Anthropologist. Imprisoned in Peru as human rights activist.
c1940-Alive - Clara Halter - Artist. Designed peace monuments in Paris, St. Petersburg, Hiroshima & Jerusalem.1945-1990 - Joseph Doucé - Psychologist & Baptist pastor in Paris. Among founders of Intl Lesbian & Gay Association. Killed by French secret police?
19501967-2015 - Stéphane Charbonnier - Called "Charb." Satirical caricaturist & journalist. Joined Charlie Hebdo in 1992 & became its editor in 2009. Murdered with 11 others.
1967-Alive - Pierre Omidyat - Iranian origin. Made billions by creating eBay in 1995. Started First Look Media in 2013 for "original, independent journalism."1971-Alive - Sergei Guriev - Economist. Criticized trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Fled Russia in 2013 & went to France.
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