Marcellin was born on May 20th, 1789 in Saint Etienne, France. The was born to his father, Jean-Baptiste Champagnat and mother, Marie Therese Chirat Champagnat. Marcellin was the 9th child out of the ten between his parents.
The idea for the Society of Mary was conceived and promoted by a group of seminarians, including Marcellin. He was then ordained on July 22nd, 1816 and the age of 27. The next day Marcellin traveled to the shrine of Our Lady of Fourvieres with others that are also interested.
On January 2nd, 1817 Marcellin encouraged two men to join him in forming the Marist Brothers. Soon others followed and La Valla then became the birthplace of the Marist brothers.
After a long painful fight Marcellin died of cancer on June 6th, 1840 at the age of 51. He was buried 2 days later and left a message saying "Let there be among you just one heart and one mind. Let it always be said of The Little Brothers of Mary as it was of the early Christians. See how they love one another!"
The Chicago Marist school opened on September 9th, 1963 with 320 young men enrolled as the first class. In the 2002-2003 school year, Marist became coed. The whole school became coed in the 2005-2006 school year. They used to be called the "Redskins" but now we are the "Redhawks".