Marcellin Champagnat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Saint Marcellin Champagnat | |
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 Painting of Marcellin Champagnat |
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| Priest & Founder | |
| Born | May 20, 1789, St. Etienne, France |
| Died | June 6, 1840, Marlhes, France |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholicism |
| Beatified | May 29, 1955 by Pope Pius XII |
| Canonized | April 18, 1999, The Vatican by Pope John Paul II |
| Feast | June 6 |
| Patronage | Education & Teachers |
 Saints Portal |
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Saint Marcellin Joseph Benoît Champagnat (May 20, 1789—June 6, 1840) was born the ninth of ten children near St. Etienne (Loire), France. He was the founder of the Marist Brothers, a religious congregation of men in the Roman Catholic Church dedicated to education.
Champagnat was ordained a priest in 1816, and was part of a group led by Jean-Claude Colin which founded the Society of Mary, also called the Marist Fathers and Brothers, a separate religious congregation. Champagnat’s first posting was as curate to the parish of Lavalla-en-Gier.
The region of Marlhes in which Champagnat lived and worked had been badly affected by the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, and the local community was poor and uneducated. Champagnat was horrified to attend the death of a seventeen year old boy who looked more like a scrawny child of twelve and who was totally ignorant of the basic beliefs of the Catholic faith. This episode moved him to encourage two young men, Jean-Marie Granjon and Jean-Baptiste Audras, to join him in forming the nucleus of the Marist Brothers. Champagnat and the Marist Brothers established a network of village schools.
Champagnat died on 6 June 1840, aged 51, at Our Lady of the Hermitage in the Gier River valley about 30 kilometres from where he had commenced his work. By that time there were 48 Marist schools in France and Oceania (South Pacific), and by 1856 there were 300 houses and more than 1500 Brothers. The Marist Brothers Institute was not formally approved until 1863 by Pope Pius IX. The educational philosophy of Champagnat was simple: to teach children one must love them, and secular subjects should be well taught as a means of attracting children to the schools, where they would learn the basic elements of their faith. Champagnat saw God at the centre of life and the Virgin Mary as a sure means of attracting people to God.
Marcellin Champagnat was beatified by Pope Pius XII on 29 May 1955, and canonised by Pope John Paul II on April 18, 1999. His feast day is observed in the Roman Catholic Church on 6 June. At their most numerous the Marist Brothers numbered about 10,000. In 2005 there were around 5,000 brothers.
