Society of Mary (Marists)

SOCIETY OF MARY (MARISTS). - Religious congregation founded at Belley by the ven. Jean-Claude Colin (v.) on 22 June 1825 for the work of parish missions, encouraged in this by Pope Pius VII, who on 25 Jan. 1822 had beforehand praised the project.

Having overcome no small difficulties owing to disagreements with its bishop Msgr. Devie, who wished to make the S. of M. a diocesan congregation, it obtained definitive approval with the brief Omnium gentium of Gregory XVI, of 21 Apr. 1836. The Congregation devoted itself, from its origins, to the Christian education of youth in colleges, to preaching in the countryside and to missions in western Oceania, comprising more than 300 islands. Under the direction of the founder (1836-1854) and of his successors, the Congregation went on developing its works in almost all civilized nations, taking over the direction of seminaries, founding colleges, residences of preachers, study centers, opening chapels and parishes and running leprosariums in the missions. At present (1952) it numbers 1738 professed religious, among them an archbishop and 9 bishops, with 307 houses and mission stations. The missions, begun in the Wallis and Futuna Islands and in New Zealand, are constituted into 8 apostolic vicariates: Tonga, Samoa, Wallis and Futuna, New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Southern Solomons, Northern Solomons and Fiji. The general house is in Rome.