Marcellin Champagnat

Life events

1. Born — 1789

   Marcellin Joseph Benedict Champagnat was born on 20 May 1789 in France, the year the French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille.

2. Educated — 1805

   In October 1805, at age 17, Champagnat entered the Minor Seminary at Verrières-en-Forez, having funded his studies through earnings from raising sheep; he failed his first year and was readmitted through the intervention of his mother, his parish priest, and the seminary superior.

3. Educated — 1810

   Champagnat completed his theological formation at the Major Seminary of Saint Irenaeus in Lyon, where his companions included Jean-Marie Vianney and Jean-Claude Colin; it was here that the idea for the Society of Mary was conceived among a group of seminarians.

4. Ordained — 1816

   Champagnat was ordained priest on 22 July 1816 at age 27; the following day he traveled with Colin's group to the shrine of Our Lady of Fourvières above Lyon, where they collectively dedicated themselves to Mary as the Society of Mary.

5. Other — 1817

   On 2 January 1817, Champagnat persuaded two young men, Jean-Marie Granjon and Jean-Baptiste Audras, to join him at La Valla as the founding nucleus of the Marist Brothers (Les Petits Frères de Marie), a congregation dedicated to educating rural children deprived of basic Christian instruction.

6. Wrote — 1837

   In 1837 Champagnat printed a Rule for his Brothers, consolidating the congregation's governance; two years later, in declining health, he oversaw the election of Brother François Rivat as Director-General and his own successor on 12 October 1839.

7. Died — 1840

   Champagnat died of cancer on 6 June 1840, aged 51, at Notre Dame of the Hermitage in the Gier River valley; by that time the congregation numbered 278 Brothers operating 48 schools in France, with missions extending to the South Pacific.

8. Other — 1999

   Champagnat's cause progressed from Servant of God (1896) to Venerable (1920, Pope Benedict XV) to Blessed (29 May 1955, Pope Pius XII) to Saint, when Pope John Paul II canonized him on 18 April 1999.

Relationships

Documented claims

• The founding impulse for the Marist Brothers came in late October 1816 when Champagnat attended Jean-Baptiste Montagne, a dying 16-year-old in La Valla who was entirely ignorant of basic Catholic teaching, compelling him to act immediately on his conviction that rural brothers were needed. (likely)
• Champagnat's educational directive to the Brothers was explicit: '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.' (likely)
• Champagnat held a strong devotion to guardian angels and directed that an image of a guardian angel be placed in every Marist classroom; he also designed school timetables to accommodate farming seasons, allowing children to help in the fields at planting and harvest. (likely)
• In his Spiritual Testament of 18 May 1840, nineteen days before his death, Champagnat wrote: '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!' (certain)
• At Champagnat's death in 1840 the congregation numbered approximately 280 Brothers; it grew to 1,500 by 1856, and by 2000 reached around 5,000 Marist Brothers working in 74 countries alongside tens of thousands of lay collaborators. (likely)