Marcellin Champagnat
French priest and Catholic saint
Feast: 20 May (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Marcellin Champagnat was born at Marlhes, a mountain village of central-eastern France, on 20 May 1789, as the Revolution broke out, the ninth child of a Christian family. He became a priest of the Society of Mary.
Struck by the cultural and spiritual poverty of country boys, as a 27-year-old curate at La Valla he received his first two disciples on 2 January 1817: so began the Little Brothers of Mary, the Marist Brothers, for the Christian education of children, in poverty, humility and total trust in God.
The miracles
The Dicastery's biography does not describe the miracles approved in the cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
A country curate who founded the Marist Brothers to teach children the faith.
Connected on this site
- Gabriel Rivat (Brother François) Venerable“Gabriel Rivat, in religion Brother François, joined Marcellin Champagnat's new Marist Brothers in 1817 as a boy and later led the institute as its first superior general after the founder.” — this site's research
- Jean-Claude Colin Venerable“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.” — Wikipedia
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Marcellin Joseph Benoît Champagnat
- Wikidata Q559806 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Marcellin Champagnat (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.