Jean Vanier is the son of Georges and Pauline Vanier. Georges was Governor General of Canada; Pauline devoted her entire life to various humanitarian efforts. Jean was born on September 10, 1928 in Geneva, where his father was serving his country as a diplomat. Jean and his four brothers and sisters grew up in several European countries. When World War II broke out, the Vaniers were living in Paris, a city they had to flee in 1940. After a perilous trip, the family arrived home in Quebec, Canada.

Jean Vanier continued his schooling in Quebec. Even from a young age, he felt the intense need to seek his own path. At the age of 13, he asked for his father's permission to join the British Navy and return to a Europe tormented by war. His father simply answered, “I trust you.” Recalling this moment, Jean tells us that, without a doubt, it was “probably one of the two most important things that happened, because if he trusted me then I could trust myself.”* Thus the young Jean not only returned to Europe and became a cadet in the British Royal Navy, he also learned what it meant to trust someone else. It was a lesson from his father that he never forgot and has passed on to others ever since.

Searching without knowing! After the war, having completed his education in Great Britain, Jean Vanier joined the ranks of the Canadian Navy as an aircraft carrier officer. But more and more, he had the feeling that his calling was elsewhere.