Champagnat, Marcelin, Venerable

CHAMPAGNAT, Marcelin, Venerable. - Founder of the institute of the Little Brothers of Mary (v.), or Marist Brothers, b. at Marlhes (diocese of Lyon) on 20 May 1789, d. at the Hermitage near St-Chamand on 6 June 1840.

To come to the aid of youth abandoned by their parents and often betrayed by the secular and atheistic school, he gathered brothers around himself so as then to scatter them as teachers throughout the various parishes, and despite difficulties and opposition of every kind, he succeeded admirably.

A fellow student in the seminary of the ven. Fr. Colin, founder of the Marist Fathers, he shared his aspirations and gave his name to the Society of Mary as soon as he learned it had been approved by the Holy See, joining his brothers to it. These, at the invitation of Rome, later erected into an autonomous institute, spread rapidly throughout all parts of the world.

Champagnat was a man of exemplary piety, he nourished a most tender devotion toward the Madonna whom he called "our ordinary resource," and he always practiced great austerity of life. He deeply instilled this spirit in his brothers, leaving them, besides the constitutions (1st ed., 1837) approved by Pius IX on 9 Jan. 1863, detailed directives for their spiritual and intellectual formation, for the Christian education of youth according to the principles of the wisest pedagogy, at his time almost totally ignored. The process of beatification is under way and the decree on the heroicity of the virtues dates from 11 July 1920.

Antonio Giamboni