Saint Marcellin Champagnat

If you go to Marist, you have heard of Saint Marcellin Champagnat. If you don't, you probably haven't. April, 18th marked the canonization of Marcellin Champagnat, the founder of the Marist Brothers and namesake of the largest freshman dorm. Marist College is the direct heir to his teaching mission. I would like therefore, to take this opportunity to spread knowledge of who Saint Champagnat was, and more importantly, what he did. In order to do so, I am going to share an article written by my close friend and one of the sweetest people in the world, Nick:

At first consideration, one would probably expect that Marcellin Champagnat had excelled in school. In fact, because of the French Revolution until he turned 11, and then only for one day! During class that day, the schoolteacher beat a student who tried to answer a question that had been posed to Marcellin. Horrified, he left school and did not return to formal education until he entered the seminary at age 16.

Although gifted with natural intelligence, Marcellin's lack of formal education cause him to struggle as a student. But that experience was fundamental to his sense of mission. He would later say, "to educate children, you must love them all equally".

On October 28, 1816, three months after his ordination, Marcellin was called to the Montagne home where 16 year-old John Baptiste Montagne was dying. As Marcellin prepared to hear the confession of Jean-Baptiste, he realized the young man had little religious or academic education. It occurred to Marcellin that Jean Baptiste was one of many young people victimized by lack of education during and after the French Revolution.

Marcellin's own difficult experience and his encounter with Jean-Baptiste convinced him that he had to do something to combat the illiteracy and spiritual poverty of the young people in rural France.

To meet this need, Marcellin founded the Marist Brothers.

He said of his community's mission that they were to "serve God with fervor, to fulfill faithfull all the duties of our state, to work every day to detach our heart from creatures in order to give it to Jesus and Mary, to open it to all the movements of grace." The Brothers would find their glory, Marcellin said, in their efforts "to imitate and follow Jesus Christ," guided and strengthened by the Spirit. In all their work among the young, they were "to make Jesus Christ known and loved."

I myself think this is a very lofty and worthy mission - imagine bringing Jesus into the lives of the uneducated and unknowing and not only educating them, but opening up to His love and giving them a basic sense of love for God as well.

Marcellin's story also makes me appreciate my own education. I have been very blessed to receive quality education for the past 16 or 17 years, and I am most definitely not always grateful for how important having such a good education is. It's so easy to complain about the schoolwork and forget that there are others who would give almost anything to have half as good an education that we all receive here at Marist ... thanks to Marcellin Champagnat.

(oh, and just a side note: Marcellin's Champagnat's middle name is Benoit. That explains yet another building name on campus)