Jean François Antoine Vanier was born in Geneva, Italy on September 10, 1928. He studied at the Royal Naval College and spent time with both the British Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy. In 1945, after the liberation of Paris, he spent part of a military leave at the Gare d'Orsay in Paris helping the Canadian Red Cross receive survivors of concentration camps. He resigned his commission in 1950.
He spent several years living in a contemplative community near Paris. He received a doctorate from the Catholic University of Paris in 1962. He taught philosophy for a time at the University of Toronto. He founded two worldwide organizations for people with developmental disabilities called L'Arche and Faith and Light. He wrote more than 30 books including An Ark for the Poor and Becoming Human. He received the Paul VI prize in 1997 and the Templeton Prize in 2015. He died from thyroid cancer on May 7, 2019 at the age of 90.
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