Administrative/Biographical History
Fr. Pierre Boyer is considered one of the founders of the Society of Saint Edmund. Boyer was born at Noyers, Yonne, France in 1813. While at minor Seminary in Auxerre, he met Fr. John Baptiste Muard, future founder of the Society. Boyer and Muard organized a society among the seminarians to encourage Christian perfection. In 1846, following ten years of service as a parish priest in Pourrain, he resigned his parish and entered the community of missionaries at Pontigny. These auxiliary priests preached missions and conducted retreats throughout the Diocese of Sens. In 1850, after Fr. Muard was formally installed in the monastery at Pierre Qui Vire, his fellow priests named Boyer Superior of the community. While Superior, Boyer administered the formal establishment of the Society as a religious institute on Sept. 29 1852, established the Society’s first seminary, and undertook restoration of the abbey church at Pontigny. In 1867 following many years of growth, Boyer was instrumental in the establishment of the Society’s first new foundation at Mont-Saint-Michel. Boyer directed the reestablishment of the pilgrimage of St. Edmund at Pontigny and the pilgrimage to Mont-Saint-Michel, the issuing of the publication Les Annales du Mont Saint Michel, and the granting of Pontifical Status for the Society. Upon this establishment, Boyer formally became Superior General of the Society and oversaw even further growth, particularly in the area of education. Boyer oversaw establishment of the College De l’Immaculee Conception, as well as the first foray into America at Keelers Bay, Vermont. He died Feb. 17, 1892. Author: Elizabeth Scott
