Paul Irénée Couturier (29 July 1881 – 24 March 1953) was a French Catholic priest and a promoter of the concept of Christian unity.
He also worked to establish closer ties between the various Christian faiths, arranging meetings at La Trappe des Dombes and at Présinge.
He also maintained a huge correspondence, with Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and all kinds of Christians, created and distributed a number of tracts on prayer for unity, and kept in close contact with the World Council of Churches.
In 1952, for his work in promoting religious unity he was granted the honorary title of Archimandrite by the Melkite Greek Catholic Church Patriarch of Antioch, Maximos IV Sayegh.
Cardinal Walter Kasper of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity recently summarised important aspects of Couturier's impact: While [Father Paul] Wattson maintained that the goal of unity was the return to the Catholic Church, Abbé Paul Couturier of Lyons (1881–1953) gave a new impetus to this Week in the 1930s, ecumenical in the true sense of the word.
Paul Couturier's 1944 spiritual testament is very important, profound and moving; it is one of the most inspired ecumenical texts, still worth reading and meditating on today.