Fourier failed

[CyrilSebastian]

St. Peter Fourier (1565-1640) was the founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame.
He established the Congregation to educate young girls.
He failed to win approval for a similar organization to teach boys.
Why did he fail to win approval?

 

[Mintaka]

I don’t know, sir. Presumably you would want to read a good biography of the man. You’d probably also want to see if his area already had tons of boys’ schools. (Which they probably did.)

 

[Mintaka]

The French version of Wikipedia has an article on the Congregation de Notre-Sauveur, which was established (or re-established under new rules and management) by St. Pierre Fourier.

They ran a bunch of colleges and educational stuff for boys, but then the French Revolution happened and that was the end of that.

After the French Revolution, the canon group was refounded as the Clercs réguliers de Notre-Sauveur, but their purpose was to help out with parish leadership and other pastoral duties. They stuck around until their last member died in 1919.

So yeah, Fourier didn’t fail, but the group petered out after a couple or three centuries. Not a bad run, though.