Marcellin Joseph Benedict Champagnat, FMS (20 May 17896 June 1840) was a
French Catholic priest who founded of the
Marist Brothers
The Marist Brothers of the Schools, commonly known as simply the Marist Brothers, is an international community of Catholic Church, Catholic religious institute of Religious brother, brothers. In 1817, Marcellin Champagnat, a Marist priest from Fr ...
, a
religious congregation
A religious congregation is a type of Religious institute (Catholic), religious institute in the Catholic Church. They are legally distinguished from Religious order (Catholic), religious orders – the other major type of religious institute – i ...
of
brothers
A brother (: brothers or brethren) is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingl ...
devoted to
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a female given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religion
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also called the Blesse ...
and dedicated to education. He was canonized in 1999 and his feast day is 6 June, his death anniversary.
Champagnat was born in the year of the
storming of the Bastille
The Storming of the Bastille ( ), which occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, was an act of political violence by revolutionary insurgents who attempted to storm and seize control of the medieval armoury, fortress, and political prison k ...
, the start of the
French Revolution. The religious, political, economic, and social unrest of the times he lived influenced his priorities and life path. Champagnat was ordained as a priest on 22 July 1816 and was part of a group led by
Jean-Claude Colin
Jean-Claude Colin, SM was a French priest (7 August 1790 – 15 November 1875) who became the founder of the Society of Mary (Marists).
Early life
Jean-Claude, born on 7 August 1790 at the hamlet of Barbery, in the Beaujolais region of central F ...
, who founded the
Society of Mary, a separate religious congregation.
Seminary and ordination

With money he earned from raising sheep, he went to the Minor Seminary at
Verrières-en-Forez. He entered in October 1805. Older than many of his classmates, at the age of 17, he failed his first year and was sent home. He was readmitted, through the efforts of his mother, his parish priest, and the superior of the seminary.
Champagnat, who by this time had developed from being timid and shy into a gregarious young man, was known to frequent the local pubs. As a consequence, he was eventually regarded as a member of a group known as the “Happy Gang,” made up of seminarians who were a familiar sight in the taverns of the town during their free time.
At the beginning of his second year, Champagnat settled down to a more sober lifestyle. He continued to apply himself to his studies throughout his second year at the seminary. Two events, occurring during the summer following the second year, also helped to moderate his exuberant behaviour. The first was the sudden death on 2 September 1807 of his friend, Denis Duplay. The second was a serious conversation with Father Linossier, who supervised the seminary, about improving Champagnat's general conduct. Champagnat left Verrières for St. Irenaeus, the major seminary near Lyons.
He then attended the major seminary at Saint Irenaeus in
Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
for his spiritual and theological formation as a priest. Among his companions were
Jean-Marie Vianney
John Vianney (born Jean-Marie Vianney and later Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney; 8 May 1786 – 4 August 1859) was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic priest often referred to as the ''Curé d'Ars'' ("the parish priest of Ars"). He is known ...
and
Jean-Claude Colin
Jean-Claude Colin, SM was a French priest (7 August 1790 – 15 November 1875) who became the founder of the Society of Mary (Marists).
Early life
Jean-Claude, born on 7 August 1790 at the hamlet of Barbery, in the Beaujolais region of central F ...
.
He was no natural scholar but through hard work and the support of his mother and aunt he was finally ordained.
It was here that the idea for the Society of Mary was conceived and promoted by a group of seminarians, including Champagnat. He was ordained on 22 July 1816, at the age of twenty-seven, and the next day, travelled to the shrine of Our Lady of Fourviéres above Lyons with others interested in establishing a Society of Mary. The group of young men together dedicated themselves to Mary as "The Society of Mary".
[ From the start, he announced the Society should include teaching Brothers to work with children deprived of Christian education in remote rural areas because others were not going to them.
]
Founding the Marist Brothers
After his ordination, Champagnat was appointed pastor in La Valla, on the slopes of Mont Pilat. Champagnat was struck by the isolation in which people lived and the lack of education in the rural area. At the end of October 1816, after attending Jean-Baptist Montagne, a dying sixteen-year-old completely ignorant of basic Catholic teaching, Champagnat acted upon his conviction of the need for religious Brothers.[
After witnessing the poor treatment of a student by a teacher on his first day at school, Champagnat's thoughts on education had been shaken. He was motivated to establish a society that would care for indigent children and display "great zeal for the poor". When he later instructed the Marists on how to educate their students, he ordered them, "Keep loving them as long as they are with you, since this is the only way to work with any success at reforming them. Love them all equally—no outcasts, no favourites". He stated on another occasion, "I cannot see a child without wanting to tell him how much God loves him".][
On 2 January 1817, Champagnat encouraged two young men Jean-Marie Granjon and Jean-Baptiste Audras, to join him in forming the nucleus of the Marist Brothers. Others soon followed. La Valla thus became the birthplace of the Marist Brothers.][ In 1817 he started a small establishment for training teachers at La Valla, which became a centre for his young Brothers. In 1824, when the new French king, ]Charles X Charles X may refer to:
* Charles X of France (1757–1836)
* Charles X Gustav (1622–1660), King of Sweden
* Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon (1523–1590), recognized as Charles X of France but renounced the royal title
See also
*
* King Charle ...
, transferred the oversight of elementary education to the Catholic Church, Champagnat won support to build a new and larger novitiate
The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...
, which became the Notre Dame Hermitage, and the brothers began to spread more widely.
In the early years of the new society, Champagnat personally supervised the training of the Brothers, visiting all of their schools and taking part in their teaching. By 1833, the novices of the Brothers were primarily men in their late teens and early twenties. They were required to be literate and numerate and received instruction in doctrine and the religious life as they trained to become teachers, living by a regular timetable of prayer, study, and manual work. Soon, the Brothers extended their services from the small country parishes in which they had begun their work to the larger towns.
In 1818 Champagnat opened the first Marist school whose timetable he designed in such a way to fit the farming needs of his parishioners (such as allowing children off school to help in the fields at planting and harvesting time). He set fees for the school at a level he knew most rural families could meet. In fact, if he knew the family was unable to afford anything, the tuition was free.[ Champagnat had a great devotion to the ]guardian angel
A guardian angel is a type of angel that is assigned to protect and guide a particular person, group or nation. Belief in tutelary deity, tutelary beings can be traced throughout all antiquity. The idea of angels that guard over people played ...
s, and directed that an image of a guardian angel be placed in every classroom.
Encouraged by the success of the school in La Valla, others were founded at Marlhes
Marlhes () is a commune in the Loire department in central France.
Population
Twin towns
Marlhes is twinned with:
* Féouda, Togo
* Charette, Quebec, Canada
Personalities
Marcellin Champagnat, a Catholic saint who founded the Marist B ...
in 1819, in Saint-Sauveur-Street 1820, and in Bourg-Argental
Bourg-Argental (; ; ) is a commune in the Loire department in central France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Loire department
The following is a list of the 320 communes of the Loire department of France.
The communes cooperate i ...
in 1822. But this success endangered the small congregation, which had little more than novices. In March 1822, eight applicants came from Haute-Loire, giving a new impetus to the institution, and allows the creation of new houses in Vanosc
Vanosc (; ) is a commune in the Ardèche department in southern France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Ardèche department
The following is a list of the 335 communes of the Ardèche department of France.
The communes cooper ...
1823, Saint-Symphorien-le-Chateau 1823, and Chavanay Charlieu 1824.
In 1837, Champagnat printed a Rule for his Brothers. In view of Champagnat's declining health, however, in 1839 Jean-Claude Colin advised him to have the Brothers elect a successor. This took place with the election of Brother François Rivat as Director-General and Champagnat's successor on 12 October 1839.
Final years
After a long-term illness, Champagnat died of cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
on 6 June 1840,[ aged 51, at Our Lady of the Hermitage in the ]Gier River
The Gier () is a French river that flows in a northeast direction through the Loire and Rhône departments. It is a tributary of the Rhône, which it enters from the right bank. The Gier valley was formerly heavily industrialized with coal and iro ...
valley about 30 kilometres from where he had commenced his work. He was buried on 8 June. He left this message in his Spiritual Testament of 18 May 1840: "Let there be among you just one heart and one mind. Let it always be said of the Little Brothers of Mary as it was of the early Christians: See how they love one another!" By that time there were 278 Brothers and 48 Marist schools in France, and the order was spreading to the South Pacific.
The nascent order called themselves Les Petits Frères de Marie or Little Brothers of Mary. The Marist Brothers Institute was formally approved in 1863 by Pope Pius IX
Pope Pius IX (; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in hist ...
, and were given the name . Members of the order are identified by the initials "FMS".
Veneration
Champagnat's cause was formally opened on 9 August 1896, granting him the title of Servant of God
Servant of God () is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint.
Terminology
The expression ''Servant of God'' appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in ...
. Champagnat was declared Venerable on 11 July 1920 by Pope Benedict XV
Pope Benedict XV (; ; born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, ; 21 November 1854 – 22 January 1922) was head of the Catholic Church from 1914 until his death in January 1922. His pontificate was largely overshadowed by World War I a ...
, beatified
Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the ...
by Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...
on 29 May 1955, and canonised
Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of sai ...
by Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005.
In his you ...
on 18 April 1999.
His feast day is observed in the Catholic Church on 6 June.
Legacy
At his death, there were 280 Marist Brothers in the south of France. The number grew to 1500 Brothers in 1856. In 2000, there are about 5000 Marist Brothers and tens of thousands of lay people who undertake the work of spreading Marist education in 74 countries around the world.
Champagnat never wrote an extended exposition of his educational philosophy, but he believed that to teach children one must love them; secular subjects should be well taught as a means of attracting children to the schools, and they would learn the basic elements of their faith as well. Influenced by the French school of spirituality
The French school of spirituality was the principal devotional influence within the Catholic Church from the mid-17th century through the mid-20th century, not only in France but throughout the Church in most of the world. A development of the Ca ...
, Champagnat saw God at the centre of life and the Virgin Mary as a sure means of attracting people to God.
The endemic Italian columbine '' Aquilegia champagnatii'' is named in his honour.
See also
* Peter Chanel
*Peter Julian Eymard
Peter Julian Eymard ( ; 4 February 1811 – 1 August 1868) was a French Catholic priest and the founder of two religious institutes: the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament for men and the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament for women.
Life
Eym ...
*John Vianney
John Vianney (born Jean-Marie Vianney and later Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney; 8 May 1786 – 4 August 1859) was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic priest often referred to as the ''Curé d'Ars'' ("the parish priest of Ars"). He is known ...
Notes
References
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*
Further reading
* Marcellin Champagnat. A man for our times. Br. Giorgio Diamant and Mario Meuti, Elio Dotti. GRAFISTAR - Giugliano (Napoli).
* Br. Jose M. Ferre, fms. Letters to a young friend by Marcellin Champagnat.Marist Brothers of Schools. Marist Publications.
* McMahon, FMS, Brother Frederick. Strong Mind, Gentle Heart. (Drummoyne, NSW: Marist Brothers, 1988).
* Farell FMS, Brother Stephen. Achievement from the Depths. (Drummoyne, NSW: Marist Brothers, 1984).
External links
Institute of the Marist Brothers of the Schools (F.M.S.- Fratres Maristae a Scholis)
Description of Champagnat's life (German)
* ttp://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09749c.htm Little Brothers of Mary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Champagnat, Marcellin
1789 births
1840 deaths
Founders of Catholic religious communities
French Roman Catholic saints
Marist Brothers
Notre Dame Educational Association
Beatifications by Pope Pius XII