MARIST BROTHERS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 136, 6 December 1926, Page 10

MARIST BROTHERS

GOLDEN JUBILEE

HISTORY OF THE ORDER, ■.'-■

At tho Basilica, Hill street, ycster- . day, at the 11 o'clock Mass, Dean Reg- - nault preached, and gave an historical.. . sketch of'-h'o origin and growth of the...,,.Marist Brothers' Order, whose golden jubilee in New Zealand is about to be - celebrated in Wellington. In the year 1816, said Dean Regnault, a young priest whose name wa«. Marcellin Champagnat was sent as curalff.. . to-a remote village in France, called,.Lavalla. There was no schoolmaster ij»/ lv ; the village; and no education was given. - • to the young. This was for Fatter ' ' Champagnat an opportunity to reahsa.-, i the dream of his youth. He. took pbsj,_,V . session of a cottage, which he had pur- - chased with £64 borrowed from a friendly parishioner, and installed in it two illiterate boys, whom he proposed to train in the art of school teaching. The three made the furniture themselves, and as they were without means, earned a living by nail-making. This was indeed a humble beginning, but from it sprang ono of the far-flung teaching congregations of tlie Catholic Church, the congregation of the Little Brothers of Mary, or Marist Brothers. From that tiny seed grew a tree which . spread its branches over the world and sheltered the children of many races. One of its branches reached New Ze_« ~-_ land fifty years ago, and' to-day the' Catholics of New Zealand thanked Almighty God for fifty golden years of" v service. ' • ■■■•> ••:■■ Under the tuition of Father Cham- ■ pagnat, the two illiterate boys wha... .'■ were 'destined to become the first mcmv.. . bers of the Marist Brothers of the -;;. Schools, as they were named by the;— Pope in the charter of authorisation,-"1' made such wonderful progress that they were soon able to go into the ---. hamlets and give elementary instruct.. tion to poor children. A few months:-r: later they were joined by others. Their'-'----famo as teachers spread to neighbouringl" • villages, and before/the end of 1821, - Father Champagnat had schools in four parishes, and tho 'Brothers had. several hundred children under their care. One hundred and ten years had --„ elapsed, years of trial, but also years,._,. of triumph and good works, to which,,,. | might be applied the words of Holy/, , Scripture, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, our faith." The" "_ - Order had now 8000 learned pious dis-".".," I ciples, having under their care 105,000.,, , boys. For fifty years the Brothers had been, in our midst. Did 'Catholics realise, tno preacher asked, the great debt the c6rii-~ : '"'« munity owed to them.? Did tj^ey realise".'.' " that but for them and othct religious " , institutions it would be quite impojs-. sible for the Church to maintain' an , adequate system of education! A re_<_.' _'_' lution ought to be taken to-day to tup- '". port the Brothers in their grand wor-tr" " and to help in its expansion att(*l /' i development.