William Joseph Chaminade or
Guillaume-Joseph Chaminade, now called by his liturgical title of
BlessedBeatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
Chaminade (April 8, 1761 – January 22, 1850), was a
FrenchThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Roman Catholic priest who survived persecution during the
French RevolutionThe French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. He founded the
Society of MaryThe Society of Mary, a Roman Catholic Marian Society, is a congregation of brothers and priests called The Marianists or Marianist Brothers and Priests. The Society was founded by Blessed William Joseph Chaminade, a priest who survived the anti-clerical persecution during the French Revolution. ...
, also called the Marianists, in 1817. The
Marianist FamilyThe Marianist Family is a group of four Roman Catholic organizations which trace their origins to Blessed William Joseph Chaminade and Mother Adèle de Batz de Tranquelleon...
's other three branches—the married and single men and women of the Marianist Lay Communities, the consecrated laywomen of the Alliance Mariale, and the nuns known as Daughters of Mary Immaculate—also look to Chaminade as a founder or inspiration. Beatified by
Pope John Paul IIBlessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
on September 3, 2000, Blessed Chaminade's feast day is celebrated on January 22.
During the Revolution
Ordained a priest in 1785, Chaminade moved to
BordeauxBordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
in 1790, after the French Revolution had begun. There, he became an enemy of the state by defying the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which would have required him to take an oath affirming the Revolution's secular values and disclaiming the authority of the Church. He secretly continued to work as a priest, risking a possible death penalty. One of his allies in this work was the
VenerableCanonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
Marie-Thérèse Charlotte de LamourousVenerable Marie-Thérèse de Lamourous was a French Lay-woman who was a member of the underground Church during the French Revolution, after the Revolution she founded a house for repentant prostitutes at Bordeaux called “The Miséricorde.”- Early life :Marie Thérèse Charlotte de Lamourous was born...
(1754–1836), whom he assisted in founding Bordeaux's Miséricorde for "fallen women." In 1795, he accepted responsibility for supervising the reconciliation of Bordeaux priests who had taken the constitutional oath but wanted to return to the Church; fifty such priests completed their reconciliation with Chaminade's help. He fled Bordeaux in 1797, under the reign of the Directorate, and he lived in Zaragoza, Spain, for three years. There, he visited the
Shrine of Our Lady of the PillarThe Basilica-Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar is a Roman Catholic church in the city of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. The Basilica venerates Blessed Virgin Mary, under her title Our Lady of the Pillar praised as Mother of the Hispanic Peoples by Pope John Paul II...
and formed a strong devotion to Mary; he decided to build an organization of lay people and religious in her name. He started the Marianist movement, which includes St.Anthony of Maui.
Forming communities
When he returned to Bordeaux in November 1801, he reestablished the Marian
SodalityIn Christian theology, a sodality is a form of the "Universal Church" expressed in specialized, task-oriented form as opposed to the Christian church in its local, diocesan form . In English, the term sodality is most commonly used by groups in the Catholic Church, where they are also referred to...
, which he hoped would promote the desecularization of France by offering "the spectacle of a people of saints". The sodality spread to other cities, and the Vatican recognized his efforts by appointing him Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Bazas and, in 1801, naming him Missionary Apostolic.
Some sodalitists wanted to make a more complete commitment to the Church, so Chaminade, along with the Ven. Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon (1789–1828), founded the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate in
AgenAgen is a commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department in Aquitaine in south-western France. It lies on the river Garonne southeast of Bordeaux. It is the capital of the department.-Economy:The town has a higher level of unemployment than the national average...
in 1816. A year later, he founded the Society of Mary at Bordeaux. Both orders devoted themselves to teaching. Chaminade sought to establish a network of schools to train Catholic teachers, but this effort was checked by the 1830 Revolution. However, both of Chaminade's orders continued to grow: the Daughters of Mary founded schools in south-western France to educate rural women and the Society of Mary expanded in France, Switzerland (1839) and the United States of America (1849). Chaminade died quietly, surrounded by members of the Society, in Bordeaux in 1850.
Miracle Worker
There have been claims that Father Chaminade is a miracle worker. After praying for his intercession, a young girl was cured of cancer, a type that until then had never been cured. At the 2011 Chaminade Day mass in San Antonio, Central Catholic president, Brother Peter Pontillilo, and teacher Jack Steers, were hurled toward the ground after the platform on which they stood buckled beneath their collective weight. However, after Chaminade's name was invoked, they both rose to their feet, apparently unscathed. Though not yet confirmed as a miracle, it has been submitted to the Vatican as the second miracle needed to canonize the blessed Father, and is even being called the "Chaminade Day Miracle" in the school community.
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