JEAN Vanier, the founder of the L'Arche community, was this week awarded the £1.1 million Templeton Prize at a ceremony at Trafalgar Square in London.
"Let us meet across differences - intellectual, cultural, national, racial, religious," said Vanier as he accepted the prize.
The annual prize - one of the world's largest awards to an individual - was established in 1972 by philanthropist and financier Sir John Templeton to honour people who have made exceptional contributions to affirming life's spiritual dimension.
L'Arche, a faith-based group, started in northern France in 1964 when Vanier, a Canadian, invited two intellectually disabled men to come and live with him as friends.
That sowed the seeds of an organisation which has grown to become an international network of communities where people with and without intellectual disabilities live and work together as peers.
There are today 147 L'Arche residential communities operating in 35 countries - including a strong presence in Ireland - and more than 1,500 Faith and Light support groups in 82 countries that similarly urge solidarity among people with and without disabilities.
Vanier (86) joins a distinguished group of 44 former recipients of the prize including Mother Teresa, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama.
