Jean Vanier - Definition and Overview

Jean Vanier (born September 10, 1928) is the founder of L'Arche, an international ecumenical organisation that creates communities with people with learning disabilities.

Vanier was born in Geneva, Switzerland, the son of Georges Vanier (later Governor General of Canada) and his wife Pauline. Although Canadian, Vanier has lived much of his life in France, where L'Arche began. There are now over a hundred communities worldwide, in Canada, the USA, the UK, India, Japan and 25 other countries. Members of L'Arche try not so much to merely provide care as to share their lives with people. Vanier has written many books, notably Community and Growth, and his practical Catholic spirituality which inspired L'Arche is shared by Henri Nouwen, who lived in and wrote about his time in a Canadian L'Arche community.

In 1971 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Companion in 1986.