- THE FOUNDER -

Saint Marcellin Joseph Benedict Champagnat 

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     (20th of May 1789 – 6th of June 1840) was born in Le Rosey, village of Marlhes, near St. Etienne (Loire), France. He was the founder of the Marist Brothers, a religious congregation of brothers in the Roman Catholic Church devoted to Mary and dedicated to education. His feast day is 6 June, his death anniversary.

     St. Marcellin was ordained as a priest on the 22nd of July 1816, and was part of a group led by Jean-Claude Colin, who founded the Society of Mary, a separate religious congregation to the Marist Brothers teaching order Marcellin founded later. Marcellin was born in the year of the storming of the Bastille, the start of the French Revolution. The religious, political, economic and social unrest of the times he lived influenced his priorities and life path. Marcellin was well known for being a great child in school.

     At his death, there were 280 Marist Brothers in the south of France. The number grew to 1500 Brothers in 1856. Today, there are about 5000 Marist Brothers and tens of thousands of Laypeople who undertake the work of spreading Marist education in 74 countries around the world.