Marcellin Champagnat

Marcellin Joseph Benedict Champagnat, also known as Saint Marcellin Champagnat, was born in Le Rosey, village of Marlhes, near St. Etienne, France. He was the founder of the Marist Brothers, a religious congregation of brothers in the Catholic Church devoted to Mary and dedicated to education. His feast day is 6 June, his death anniversary.

Champagnat was ordained as a priest on 22 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 Champagnat founded later. Champagnat 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.