HOW EMMAUS STARTED

The first Emmaus Community was founded in Paris in 1949 by Father HenriAntoine Groues, better known as the Abbe Pierre, a Catholic priest, MP and former member of the French Resistance during the Second World War. As an MP, he fought to provide homes for those who lived on the streets of Paris.

One night, a man called Georges was brought to the Abbe Pierre. Georges had been released after 20 years in prison, only to find his family unable to cope with his reappearance. Homeless and despairing, he had tried to commit suicide in the Seine.  The Abbe Pierre did not just offer him a place to sleep.  He asked for his help. He told Georges of the homeless mothers who come to him for help for them and their children and how he could not cope with the problem on his own. Could Georges join him in his mission to help them?

Georges become the first Emmaus Companion, living with the Abbe Pierre and helping him to build temporary homes for those in need, first in the priest's own garden, then wherever land could be bought or scrounged.  He later said; 'Whatever else he might have given me-money, home, somewhere to work-l'd have still tried to kill myself again. What I was missing, and what he offered, was something to live for.'

The idea spread around the world and there are now over 300 projects in more then 40 countries; from Peru to South Korea; and from Lebanon to Canada.