PARIS - Abbe Pierre, a French priest praised as a living legend for devoting his life to helping the homeless, died Monday, his foundation said. He was 94.
One of France's most beloved public figures, Abbe Pierre died at Val de Grace hospital in Paris, his foundation said. He had been admitted with a lung infection Jan. 14.
The founder of the international Emmaus Community for the poor, Abbe Pierre served as France's conscience since the 1950s when he persuaded parliament to pass a law -- still on the books -- forbidding landlords to expel tenants during winter months.
President Jacques Chirac said in a statement, "We have lost a great figure, a conscience, an incarnation of goodness.''
A former monk, Resistance fighter and parliamentarian, Abbe Pierre long remained spry and determined despite the infirmities of old age. He once apologized for proceeding with less vigour than in the past.
Often donning a beret and cape and clutching a cane, Abbe Pierre _ a code name from his Second World War days _ topped polls as France's most beloved public figure almost year after year. He had the ear of French leaders for decades.
The Roman Catholic priest was often a fly in the ointment of the status quo. He freely admitted to using provocation as a tactical weapon in his war on misery.
"I'm not by temperament a man of anger,'' Abbe Pierre said in a 1994 interview with The Associated Press. "But when I must denounce something that destroys man, I get mad ....
"It is love that engenders this holy anger. They are inseparable.''
In 1992, he refused the Legion of Honour, France's highest award, because he considered government policies toward the homeless inadequate. He accepted the honour when it was proposed again in 2001. At the time, Chirac praised Abbe Pierre as a "brother of the poor ... a rebel ... who seeks neither admiration nor honours. ''
Abbe Pierre, he said, is a "living legend.''
