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• Spirit and Mission of the Society of Mary
  
  

  Beginnings of the Marist Family...
• Marist Family
• Marist Fathers
• Marist Brothers         
• Marist Sisters
• Marist Missionary Sisters
• Beginnings of the Australian Marist Province

• St Peter Chanel
• St Marcellin Champagnat

   

'Our Society is not characterized by any special works or by the promotion of a particular form of Marian devotion but by the desire to make the mystery of Mary in the Church the daily inspiration of our life and action.

'Hence everything in the Society will reflect the one concern of every Marist: To set the interests of Christ and the Church before his own, By spontaneously effacing himself with that generous, cheerful abnegation of which Mary had the secret.'

                Marist Statement of Objectives

'To Build a New Church'

Each religious congregation has a 'mission' or specific task. It is a distinguishing feature. The mission sums up the reason for the existence of the group.

The original dream for the Society of Mary was a religious congregation composed of both men and women, religious and lay.

Today this group, which now comprises four separate religious congregations and a lay branch, is commonly known as the Marist Family.

The authorities in Rome during the middle of the 19th century considered it too difficult to have one single congregation composed of religious men and women, priests and laity.

Painting of the 'Four Marist Founders with Mary and Child', Marist international novitiate, Dumalag, Mindanao, Philippines

All efforts on the part of those entrusted with the implementation of the Marist project came to naught.

Gradually, certainly around the 1850's, the various founding Marists and their associates began to realize that there would have to be separate congregations.

The black Madonna and Child, Le Puy

Chapel of the Blessed Virgin, Fourviere

The Marist Fathers

After his ordination in 1816 Fr Jean-Claude Colin was appointed to work with his brother, Pierre, in the mountain parish of Cerdon. It was here that Jean-Claude began preparations for what was to become the Marist family.

On October 29, 1824 a third priest, Fr Eitienne Declas, joined them to form the first community of Marist Fathers. Pierre Colin wrote to the local bishop that day: 'Today the Society of Mary has begun.'

The Marist Fathers were approved on Apr 29, 1836, and immediately undertook responsibility for the newly opened mission areas of the south-west South Pacific.

The Marist Brothers

The first branch of the Marist Family began a little before this. Fr Marcellin Champagnat, a Marist priest, founded the brothers in Lavalla in France in 1817. They were known as the Little Brothers of Mary. The Marist Brothers received their formal approval in1863

Today we know them as the Marist teaching Brothers.

(See: St Marcellin Champagnat)

The Marist Sisters

Fr Jean-Claude Colin invited several young women to come to Cerdon in 1823 to establish the first community of Marist Sisters.

The leader of this group was Jeanne Marie Chavoin. 

The sisters took their first vows in 1826, the congregation receiving its offical approval from Rome in 1884.

The Marist Missionary Sisters

The Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary trace their origins to Francoise Perroton who, in 1834, read in the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith, a letter from the Christian women of Ouveau asking for women from Lyon to help in the education of women on the tiny Pacific island.

Evolving from this group of dedicated missionary laywomen the Marist Missionary Sisters received official approval as a religious congregation in 1931.

Beginnings of the
Australian Marist Province

The first Marist contact with Australia came in 1837. Using Sydney as a supply base to support their efforts in missions throughout the vast South Pacific, the early members of the Society of Mary were based in various places around Sydney until they took up permanent residence at Villa Maria, Hunters Hill in 1847.

The Australian community was part of the Pacific missions province (Oceania) until 1926 and then part of the New Zealand province of the Society of Mary until 1938.

In that year the province of Australia was established. The provincial superior lived at St Patrick's, Church Hill in Sydney until 1966, after which the provincial headquarters were moved to Hunters Hill