COLIN, JEAN-CLAUDE, venerable. — Founder of the Society of Mary (Marist Fathers), b. at St-Bonnet-le-Troncy (Lione) on 7 Aug. 1790, d. on 15 Nov. 1875 at Notre-Dame-de-la-Neylière, near Rhône.
Ordained a priest on 25 July 1816, he was elected assistant to his brother Pietro, parish priest at Cerdon, where his pastoral zeal did not cause him to forget his aspiration to establish a society consecrated to the honor and name of Mary. On 25 Jan. 1822 Pius VII praised his project, and on 22 June 1825 the two brothers, having left the parish, went to Belley and devoted themselves fruitfully to the work of parish missions. In 1829 the direction of the minor seminary of Belley, which he held until 1845, was entrusted to the venerable. Having been given a former Capuchin convent, he began his true religious life.
With the brief Omnium gentium, Pope Gregory XVI approved the Society of Mary (21 Apr. 1836), and on 5 Sept. 1836 at Belley the fathers made their vows and elected C. superior general. He infused life into the society by founding residences and colleges and accepting the direction of seminaries; he promoted the Institute of the Marist Brothers founded by Fr. Champagnat, who had joined him; he founded (1826) the Congregation of the Marist Sisters for the education of young women, and obtained permission to establish a Marist Third Order (brief of Pius IX, 8 Sept. 1850). The ven. C., accepting the invitation of the S. Congregation of Propaganda, sent missionaries in 1850 to the remote islands of Oceania, populated by savages, where several attained the glory of martyrdom, among them the apostle of Futuna, the b. Pietro L. Chanel.
He left the office of superior for reasons of health in 1854; he composed his Constitutions, in which he established the Marian spirit to which his sons must conform; they were approved by Pius IX on 28 Feb. 1873. He left many letters of spiritual direction. His cause of beatification was introduced on 9 Dec. 1908.