Marcellin Champagnat
Marcellin Joseph Benedict Champagnat, FMS (20 May 1789 – 6 June 1840) was a French Catholic priest who founded the Marist Brothers, a religious congregation of brothers devoted to Mary and dedicated to education. He was canonized in 1999 and his feast day is 6 June, his death anniversary.
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. 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.
Patron saint of Education; teachers; simplicity
In the Martyrology
- June 6 Saint Marcellin Joseph Benoît Champagnat, Marist priest, founder of the Marist Brothers