CHAMPAGNAT, MARCELIN, venerable. - Founder of the institute 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.
In order to aid young people abandoned by their parents and often betrayed by the secular and atheistic school, he gathered brothers around himself, so that he might then send them out as teachers to 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 the name to the Society of Mary as soon as he learned that it had been approved by the Holy See, joining his brothers to II. At Rome’s invitation, these were subsequently erected into an autonomous institute and rapidly spread to all parts of the world.
C. was a man of exemplary piety; he nourished a most tender devotion to Our Lady, whom he called “our ordinary resource,” and always practised great austerity of life. He deeply instilled this spirit in his brothers, leaving them, in addition to the constitutions (1st ed., 1837), approved by Pius IX on 9 Jan. 1863, detailed directions for their spiritual and intellectual formation and for the Christian education of youth according to the principles of the wisest pedagogy, almost wholly ignored in his time. The process of beatification is under way, and the decree on the heroic nature of his virtues is dated 11 July 1920.