The Marist Tradition

Beginnings

Marcellin Champagnat was born in 1789. He was a country boy from a small French hamlet called Le Rosey in the hilly country to the south west of Lyon. Marcellin was a raw-boned country lad, somewhat reserved but generally frank and open with people, not overly literate but well skilled as a handyman, and well-schooled in religious practice. A Priest of the diocese visited the Champagnat family home to seek likely young men to become priests. The idea appealed to Marcellin, and he decided to accept the advice. He was ordained a priest in 1816. Marcellin was part of a group that wanted to start a new order in the church. The new order was called Marists. Marcellin saw fit to stress the need to provide Brothers who would instruct the neglected youngsters of rural areas. This work was so dear to his heart that the group entrusted its future to him. Marcellin, whilst attending to a dying youth, realised that some young people knew nothing about the truths of the faith. It was here that two young men responded to his proposal, so he bought a house. Work, study and prayer were the daily routine and from this modest beginning the first Marist schools emerged.

Marist Schools in Australia

The first Marist Brother ever to set foot on Australian soil was Brother Michael Colombon, who was trained by Marcellin Champagnat in France. He arrived in Sydney on December 9, 1837. It would be 35 years later, after numerous requests, that the first community of Marist Brothers was established at Harrington Street in the Rocks, the poorest part of Sydney. After the Brothers had begun their work in Sydney, there were requests from other parts of Australia, especially Victoria, for Marist Brothers to take charge of schools.