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Cerdon: a cradle of the Society of Mary, where Jean-Claude Colin first drew up the patterns for Marist life...
The picturesque village of Cerdon, in the confluence of three valleys at the north of the Bugey mountains. It was here in 1816 that the newly-ordained Jean-Claude Colin came to assist his brother, Pierre, in the pastoral care of the parish. It was here, too, that he began writing the first rule of the Society of Mary...
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Official icon of Jean-Claude Colin, receiving inspiration for the Society of Mary from the Blessed Virgin...
Detail from the icon of Jean-Claude Colin with the Blessed Virgin and Child, designed and written by the studio of John the Baptist, Auckland, NZ, in 2011. To download the full image, go to Resources / Images
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The story begins...
Jean-Claude Colin was born on 7 August,1790, in the tiny hamlet of Barbery, Loire district of France. In 1936, one hundred years after the approval of the Marist project, this memorial cross was erected on the site of the Colin homestead.
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Forest of Barbery: the Colin family would hide their parish priest here when revolutionaries were in pursuit. Later, the young Jean-Claude would come here for quiet and solace.
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Close to the Barbery hamlet is the village of St Bonnet-le-Troncy, where Jean-Claude Colin moved after the death of his parents in 1794.
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The River Loire flows past the town of St Jodard, the first of three minor seminaries attended by the young Jean-Claude Colin. After St Jodard he moved to Alix and Verrières, before continuing studies at the major seminary of St Irenaeus in Lyon. Here he joined a group of fellow seminarians who dreamt of a new family in the Church, the Marists.
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On 23 July, 1816, the day after Jean-Claude's priestly ordination, a group of twelve Marist aspirants climbed the hill of Fourvière to the ancient chapel of the Blessed Virgin (now dwarfed by the basilica overlooking the city of Lyons).
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In the chapel of the Blessed Virgin of Fourvière, Jean-Claude and his companions pledged to form the Society of Mary whenever they could.
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The newly-ordained Fr Jean-Claude Colin was appointed with his brother Pierre to the village of Cerdon, high in the Bugey mountains to the east of Lyon. The village lies in the confluence of three valleys in a remote, wine-growing district.
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The young Fr Colin prayed often before this statue of the Blessed Virgin and Child in the church of St John the Baptist, Cerdon, seeking inspiration as he drew up the first rules of the Society of Mary.
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For nine years after his ordination Fr Colin lived in the presbytery at Cerdon. It was here he began writing the first rules for Marist life. And it was from here that the pioneer Marists set out on the early Bugey missions.
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In 1825 Bishop Alexander Devie asked Fr Colin to move to the town of Belley, taking up residence at the minor seminary high school of the diocese. From here Fr Colin led the pioneer Marists on their first missiions in the mountains of the Bugey. Later he would be asked to assume leadership of the college.
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The village of Lacoux in the Bugey mountains, was one of the first parishes visited by Fr Colin and his fellow missioners. Such places had been much-neglected since the French Revolution began, many no longer with a priest.
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The church of Innimont in the Bugey mountains, one of the twenty-seven parishes visited by Fr Colin during his time as a missioner. Winter was the only time the missions could be held, the farmers no longer able to work long hours in the fields.
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The first Marist missions were preached in cold, unheated churches like the church of Innimont, the Marists being housed in equally cold, damp and draughty presbyteries.
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This statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary stands in the grounds of another of the Bugey parishes missioned by Fr Colin and his confrères. Fr Colin's unfailing passion was to do 'the work of Mary'.
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In 1833 Fr Colin, by then seen as central superior of the Marist project, made the first of five visits to Rome. At the Quirinale residence of the Pope he had his first audience, with the mission-minded Pope Gregory XVI.
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Fr Colin stayed at the Church of the Twelve Apostles in Rome, opposite the Odescalchi Palace where he would meet with one of the curial cardinals seeking approval for the Marist project.
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In April 1836 the Society of Mary priests' branch received Roman approval. On 24 September on the steps of the chapel of La Capucinière, Belley, Fr Colin and the aspiring Marists made their religious profession, electing Fr Colin as the first superior-general of the Society of Mary. Within months a group of missionaries left for the distant south-west Pacific.
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In 1838 Fr Colin moved from Belley to Lyons and the house of Puylata to set up the Marist headquarters. From here he oversaw the development of missionary Marist activity both in France and abroad.
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Rochefort-du-Gard, not far from Avignon, France, was one of several Marian shrines which Fr Colin accepted to be cared for by Marists.
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Fr Colin led the Marist Fathers into secondary education. This school at La Seyne, near Toulon in the south-east of France, was one of the early Marist colleges.
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Fr Colin wished his men to have places of retreat and quiet as a base for their missions in France. Such a place was Marcellange in central France.
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After joining the annual retreats of the Marists, Fr Colin would slip away to make a further, private retreat at centres such as the Trappist monastery of Aiguebelle, to the south of France.
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In 1852 Fr Colin established the residence of La Neylière, a place of retreat, study and reflection.
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In 1854, after his resignation from the Society of Mary's leadership, Fr Colin went to live at La Neylière where he continued his own study and the writing of the constitutions of the Marists.
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At La Neylière Fr Colin worked not only on the Marist Fathers' constitutions but those of the Marist Sisters as well as the rules for Marist Laity.
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As his health declined Fr Colin spent more and more time at La Neylière. With failing eyesight, he was assisted by Marist confrères who would read and write for him.
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On 15 November, 1875, Fr Colin died. He was buried in the grounds of La Neylière.
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This crucifix was laid in his hands upon his death.
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A large chapel was built soon after the death of Fr Colin and his body reinterred. Later another, smaller chapel was set up and in 2015 a new tombstone placed over the final resting place of Fr Colin.
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