BRANCHES OF THE MARIST TREELE PUY, France, 1812 "Here is what I want....it will be called 'Society of Mary' and it's members 'Marists'"
FOURVIERE, Lyon, France, 1816 A group of newly ordained priests pledge themselves to found the Society of Mary.
Among the group were Jean-Claude Colin, founder of the Marist Fathers and Marcellin Champagnat, founder of the Marist Brothers.
The new "Society of Mary" would have Mary's spirit and would be all-embracing. Those who planned the Marist project saw it at first as something like a tree with three branches - Fathers, Sisters and Laity, but Champagnat asked that there also be another branch for teaching Brothers and so, before too long, Marists began to develop in their four branches. Several years later, a fifth branch, the Missionary Sisters, would begin when women of the Third Order of Mary went to the missions in Oceania. The branch composed mainly of lay people was, in fact, the first to receive the blessing of the Holy See with a grant of indulgences in 1834. The Fathers' branch was next, receiving Papal approval in April 1836.
The Marist project was meant to reach everywhere, for it aimed "to take hold of the whole world, under the wings of Mary", it meant "to make the whole world Marist". The all-inclusive Society of Mary, with its secular branch, would ideally be co-extensive with the People of God united under the auspices of Mary.
The Society of Mary is a "tree with several branches". It was originally envisaged as a multi-branched congregation, a vast enterprise embracing all kinds of people: lay people and religious, brothers, sisters and priests, all working for the same goal. It was an image which captured the imagination of the first Marists. |
