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Founders/History |
AdèleClick on Image to Order
Born in 1789, the same year the French Revolution began, Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon was a woman of great zeal. She empowered many women to grow in faith, community, and service to others while deepening their relationship with God. This biography by Father Joseph Stefanelli, SM, allows the reader to truly know Adèle by walking through her childhood experiences, her spiritual journey, her visioning of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate, and her faith-filled years. Father Stefanelli uses her abundant letters to support the successes and challenges of her life's ministry. Her collaboration with Blessed William Joseph Chaminade and Marie Thérèse de Lamourous was fundamental for the Marianist Family. Father Stefanelli includes significant details of their shared mission. This biography offers an in-depth look at Adèle's spirituality, personality, and the numerous ways she responded to God's call.
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Adèle, Aristocrat for the PoorClick on Image to Order
Father Joseph Stefanelli, SM writes a brief yet encompassing story of the intriguing life of Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon. Adèle’s biography takes the reader from her early years as the child of wealthy aristocrats to her shared work [the formation of the Daughters of Mary] with Marie Thérèse de Lamourous and William Joseph Chaminade, to her untimely death at age 38. It concludes with a brief statement of the mission of today’s Daughters of Mary as they continue Adèle’s work in the modern world.
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After AdèleClick on Image to Order
Written to fill the historical gap between Adèle’s death and the suppression of Catholic teaching orders in France at the beginning of the twentieth century, Sr. Franca develops this history using archival material available in the Archives of the General Administration of the Daughters of Mary. More than half the book details the founding of the Third Order Secular, and the Third Order Regular, their relationship to the Daughters of Mary, their apostolates and the eventual merger in 1921 of the Third Order of Auch with the Daughters of Mary. The thinking of Fr. Chaminade and Mother Adèle concerning the Third Order, the vow of enclosure, the vow of stability, the vow of teaching faith as applied to the Third Order is detailed and explored
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Blessed William Joseph Chaminade,Founder of the Marianist Family
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Vincent Gizard, SM, wrote this short biography, published in English, for Father Chaminade’s beatification in September 2000. From Chaminade’s childhood to his challenging last years, Father Gizard serves as our escort through the faith development and works of William Joseph Chaminade—the creation of the Sodality of Bordeaux, his long association with Marie Thérèse de Lamourous in the works of the Sodality and the Miséricorde, his meeting and work with Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon, and the foundations of the Daughters of Mary and the Society of Mary. Chaminade’s rich and abundant faith draws all members of the Marianist Family to a life of holiness and mission.
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Bro. Charles Biehler, SM: Marianist Mathematician, 1845-1906Click on Image to Order
This book features the religious life and ministry of a special Marianist. In addition, the history of the Society of Mary as it struggled against anticlericalism in France and in Germany during Brother Charles Biehler’s lifetime is presented in detail. These various events had a direct bearing on Marianist education in the United States.
That Brother Charles Biehler, SM, is a Marianist mathematics genius who needs to be acknowledged, is sufficient reason for publishing his life. However, there are two other equally significant reasons for this work.. . . more
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Chaminade: Another PortraitClick on Image to Order
Father Vincent Vasey, SM, says in his introduction, “The purpose of this essay is not to write a biography in the strict sense of the term. That has been done, and ably.” Vasey searches instead “for Father Chaminade’s personality in the events of his life, what in them speaks to us to discover the light which reveals the lines of his character, his style. What was the center, the secret of his existence?” Vasey has undertaken this challenging task so that by gazing intently at the portrait we might know our spiritual father and so better incarnate his spirit. . . . more
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The Chaminade Legacy
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To prepare for its bicentennial of 2017, the Society of Mary has produced a critical edition of the writings and words of Blessed William Joseph Chaminade. Now the initial offering of this multivolume French work–Ecrits et Paroles–is available in English under the title The Chaminade Legacy.
The reader follows step by step the evolution of Chaminade's thought and activity and examines the dynamism of a spirituality that, while remaining always open to God's inspiration, must often adapt itself to the human condition, both political and cultural.
This edition follows both a chronological and an historical methodology. . . . more
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The Chaminade Legacy,Volume 2
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The next three volumes (2, 3, and 4) of The Chaminade Legacy gather together Father Chaminade's notes for conferences and sermons. In his own words to the police of Bordeaux.
These eight notebooks contain very incomplete notes, and some extracts or partial extracts of other works. There is little order or connection among them . . . he jotted down his thoughts on loose sheets of paper. When he thought he had sufficiently grasped his subject, he stopped writing. The majority of these writings were never revised. All of these loose sheets were gathered together by his secretary a few months ago; two of the notebooks are not even yet covered.
The same observation may be made for Father Chaminade's other small notebooks. He never wrote out a speech or a conference, only notes to focus his ideas. Most of the time, he did not even record his final thought . . .
An earlier edition of these notes, as the Notes d'Instruction, was published at Fribourg between 1963 and 1967 in 13 mimeographed volumes. With few exceptions, these notes are usually autographs. They may be dated between 1800 and 1809, and almost all were intended for lay people. They are published in the order of the classification in the General Archives (AGMAR) of the Society of Mary in Rome.
It may be asked what profit we may draw from reading these notes for conferences and sermons. A person interested in theology and the history of theology can find here a living insight into what the Church was teaching during the first quarter of the 19th century, right after the French Revolution.
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Celebrating 150 Years: The Marianists in North AmericaClick on Image to Order
Highlights of the History of the Marianists in North America, is a handy reference for those wishing to see the Marianists' background in a "nutshell." The 150 years (1849-to1999) are encapsulated with "Marianist Firsts" and "Significant People and Events." Also included are Church and world events, along with Marianist milestones. Maps illustrate the development of Marianist communities throughout North America.
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The Chapel of the MadeleineClick on Image to Order
Many Marianists know where we were born as a movement, Bordeaux, France, and specifically the Madeleine, the chapel where Chaminade ministered and saw his vision of Church come to life. But how many of us know the story of this building, the rich history it holds for the Marianists and for those who came prior.
Now, The Chapel of the Madeleine tells this story and provides historical context to this sacred space. This book, which was translated from the French by Thomas A. Stanley, SM, was published in English in honor of the bicentennial of Blessed William Joseph Chaminade’s appointment as minister of the oratory to be established at the Chapel of the Madeleine.
A plague in Bordeaux and the execution during the French Revolution of two Madelonnette Sisters are just two small facts that pepper the history of the time prior to Chaminade. However, the largest portion of the book is devoted to how the chapel has evolved since the arrival of the Marianists.
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Confidential MemorandumClick on Image to Order
During his last years—when Father William Joseph Chaminade might have looked for respite from all the turbulent periods of his life with serene and unfettered days—he was subjected to a malicious attack. His closest associates betrayed him. Narcisse Roussel, a member of the General Administration while Chaminade was Superior General, wrote the Confidential Memorandum. His purpose was to remove Chaminade from any influence in the Society of Mary and to position himself to assume the leadership. To those living in an age where fair and just treatment under the law is fiercely guarded, the story is even more disturbing because Father Chaminade never saw the document with damaging—and false—testimony against him. . . . more
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Chaminade Pragmatist with a VisionClick on Image to Order
In this short biography, Father Stefanelli highlights key moments in the life of William Joseph Chaminade. The reader enjoys glimpses along his faith-filled (and at times rocky) path as the Marianist Founder traveled from his life as a young child in Mussidan, France; his exile in Saragossa, Spain; to his beatification 150 years after his death. Chaminade's inspired mission to rechristianize France is as viable today as it was at his first Sodality meeting on December 8th, 1800.
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Companions of AdèleClick on Image to Order
Drawn primarily from the Letters of Adèle and Fr. Chaminade, 145 biographical sketches are presented – 133 are sketches of women who entered the Institute of the Daughters of Mary (Immaculate); eight describe women who lived in the convent, but did not join the Sisters; and four are vignettes of “sister-companions,” members of the Third Order. All these women were known to and interacted with Adèle during the twelve years between the founding of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary in 1816 and her death in 1828.
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Devotion to Mary in Chaminade's Life and ThoughtClick on Image to Order
This publication, produced by the former Marianist Province of the Pacific, truly lives up to its name, as it provides a thorough investigation into Blessed Chaminade's devotion to Mary in his life and thought.
According to Father Jean-Baptiste Armbruster, SM, the work's author, "Chaminade's charism can be summed up in these words: a missionary spirit committed to the spread of the Christian faith; a filial love for Mary; and a resolve to progress in Christian perfection in order to establish in the Church and at its disposal a people of saints.
Armbruster's work explores this statement–as it traces Chaminade's source of Mariology, both in terms of scholars who may have influenced the Founder and scriptural passages that were key to his thinking–and examines our alliance with Mary in terms of being her children, following her son, and serving as her missionaries.
Devotion to Mary in Chaminade's Life and Thought was produced for the fiftieth anniversary of the Pacific Province.
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Education and Transformation: Marianist Ministries in America Since
1849Click on Image to Order
NACMS is the Marianist distribution site for this book on the foundation and development of the Society of Mary in the United States.
Education and Transformation: Marianist Ministries in America Since 1849 situates the history of the Marianist brothers in religious culture, americanization and modernization, ethnicity and race issues, spirituality, and modernization of schools, colleges, and universities. The book underscores the significance of the specific character of the Society of Mary. It is framed by a prologue on William Joseph Chaminade, the Founder of the Marianist Family, and by the French roots of the Marianists during the Napoleonic era, and an epilogue on contemporary convergences, past and present. . . . more
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God Alone: Thoughts from AdèleClick on Image to Order
Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon is well known in the Marianist Family as the founder of the Marianist Sisters. Perhaps not as well known is her gift of staying in community and communication through writing letters. In God Alone we have published quotes from these letters in a daily calendar format. A blank page has been provided in this publication to encourage the reader to write his/her own thoughts and prayers that are inspired by Adèle’s words.
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JalonsClick on Image to Order
This four-volume work by Joseph Verrier, SM, presents the life of William Joseph Chaminade from 1761 to 1816, ending with the foundation of the Society of Mary. The French title images “following the guide markers along the road which William Joseph Chaminade has taken.” We see the early influences of Chaminade, his courage during the French Revolution and exile to Spain. We witness his enduring belief in his work as a missionary to young and old alike, men and women, in the Sodality, in the religious orders, in schools and cities throughout France.
Father Chaminade wrote, “You are all missionaries.” The scholarship and dedication of Father Verrier provide us with this detailed biography, which is based on original sources and includes detailed notes. This book is for the serious reader, someone willing to follow the path of Chaminade step by step.
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Last Years of Father Chaminade: 1841-1850
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Unwittingly, for over 100 years, any person telling the story of the final period of Father Chaminade’s life misrepresented it. In fact, the clouds that formed during the stormy events of 1841-1850 hung over members of the religious institutes he founded For a half century,Chaminade was relegated to little more than a footnote in the annals of SM history. The calumny threatened to truncate the progress of his toward being declared a saint. Complicating the matter is the fact that 50 years after the drama, a major biographer of Father Chaminade's found it a problem of conscience to disclose the whole truth and couched the sequence of events in a framework that was more palatable, but still not truthful.
All this changed with the work of Father Vincent Vasey, SM. In 1966 he was elected Procurator General of the Society and Postulator of the Cause of Father Chaminade. He researched notes, letters, and legal documents related to the case. In 1970, he published the remarkable findings on the actual course of this aspect of Father Chaminade’s history. . . . more
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Letters of Adèle de Batz de TrenquelléonClick on Image to Order
Father Joe Stefanelli, SM, says the number of letters from Adèle was “certainly in the thousands. Of them, only 737 have come down to us.” Because her companions in service were scattered over a large geographical area, she developed a system of letter writing. She wrote, “It is not so much the style that should preoccupy us, but rather our own improvement.”
We gain insights into Adèle’s personality, her spirituality, her deep faith, her mission, and her desire to live for God alone. Although her life was short—she died when not quite 39—Adèle worked diligently to spread the faith to all around her. The primary work of the Daughters of Mary continued to be the development and guidance of young women of the Sodality and the Association. During her life as a religious, she founded convents at Tonneins, Condom, Agen, Arbois, and Bordeaux.
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These colorful posters of the Founders--William Joseph Chaminade (left), Adèle de Batz de Trenquelléon (center), and Marie Thérèse de Lamourous (right) look great in Marianist institutions and at community gatherings. Each Founder is presented on a separate poster. |
Marianists in a Continuing MissionClick on Image to Order
This concise text marvelously highlights the history of the Society of Mary from it’s inception through the late sixties. Relying heavily on primary sources, Gadiou and Delas chronicle the triumphs and sorrows of the Society of Mary through the eyes of its most prominent members. Gadiou and Delas’ insights on where the Marianists have been and are going are very valuable. Eminently readable, this text makes for a wonderful introduction to the Society’s history.
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Marie Thérèse de Lamourous, Firm of Hand, Loving of HeartClick on Image to Order
The title of this short biography succinctly captures the life of Marie Thérèse de Lamourous. The reader will get swept away in the trials and adventures of life during the French Revolution, as you learn of Marie Thérèse’s unflinching faith and courage in this tumultuous time of history. Father Stefanelli paints a portrait of a rather unwilling heroine who eventually embraces her God-graced mission in life and adopts the prostitutes of Revolutionary France,creating a place of refuge, safety,and prayer at the Miséricorde. Marie Thérèse’s devotion to her faith and to the women she served is a positive lesson for women of and for all ages.
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Mlle de LamourousClick on Image to Order
This biography of Marie Thérèse is intriguing in the variety and number of “hats” she wore during her long life. She was from the aristocratic class and had lived on a country estate; during the Revolution, she bravely ministered in Bordeaux; when she fled to the country at Pian, she served as spiritual leader of the townspeople. She began a long association with William Joseph Chaminade and was instrumental in the development of the Sodality, the foundation of the Daughters of Mary, and the early years of the Society of Mary. Her major work was the Miséricorde, a refuge for women who wanted to reform their lives.
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Our First Century: 1817-1917Click on Image to Order
This thorough review of the first one hundred years of the Society of Mary is very well written. Father Lebon has managed to capture (in a concise manner) the founding spirit of the Society of Mary while retaining the historical rigor demanded by such an endeavor. His accounts of Father Simler are particularly moving, and it is clear that working with Father Simler as Head of the Office of Instruction affected him deeply.
Lebon does a marvelous job of painting a vivid picture of life in the Society of Mary from its inception through the generalate of Good Father Hiss. Lebon’s liberal quotation of primary sources throughout the text makes the reader feel as though the first and second generation of Marianist priests and brothers are speaking across the ages, and lends an intimate ambiance to the piece.
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A Short History of Marianist SpiritualityClick on Image to Order
A Short History of Marianist Spirituality is exactly that—short. Yet within its 139 pages, Cada captures the essence of the origins and development of Marianist spirituality. Ever attentive to language, Cada examines the evolution of many phrases and concepts dear to Marianists and carves a solid analysis for why Marianist spirituality is fundamentally “lay,” “adaptive,” and “Modern.”
This work is an essential primer for anyone wishing to enter more fully into the history of our charism.
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Reading Guide
The Society of Mary in MexicoClick on Image to Order
By the sesquicentennial year of 1999, Marianists from the United States had been associated with the work in Mexico for 30 of their 150 years, one-fifth of their history. Volume Two of the Sesquicentennial Series, The Society of Mary in Mexico by Robert Wood, SM gives a brief overview of the diversity of works which have been developed from the two foundations of the Society of Mary in Mexico.
The first section, written in 1983, covers the years from 1904 to 1914 and the establishment of schools in Durango and in Hermosillo, Mexico. This implantation of the Marianist charism ended when the Mexican Revolution caused the eviction of all religious from Mexico in 1914.
Part Two was written by Brother Wood in 1994 as part of a general history of the Society of Mary requested by the General Chapter of 1991. The second implantation began in 1980 as he, Fr. Christian Janson, and Bro. Gerald Sullivan took up an apostolic work in parish ministry in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico. In 1981 a second community was established to direct a school in Apaseo el Grande. Other chapters describe ministry with lay Marianist groups; the community at Saint Joseph Parish in Lomas de Capula, Mexico City; and the building of the novitiate in Querètaro.
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Suppression of Religious Orders in France
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This is a fascinating history of what happens when a government promulgates laws promoting anticlericalism. Sr. Lucia situates the struggles of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate not only in the historical perspective of the French government’s repressive attitude towards religious institutes, she also deals with the consequences of these attitudes. Relying on interviews and archival material, Sr. Lucia objectively reports the failings and mistakes unavoidable when anyone is forced to grapple with laws and attitudes that threaten an institute’s very survival and, by extension, one’s own “survival” or way of life. Another interesting part of this history describes the providential merger of the Third Order of Auch, a merger that assured the survival of the Daughters of Mary.
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Things Marianist was developed in 1992 as a response to individuals and groups looking for easily-accessible materials on Marianist spirit and charism. Before the advent of this series, most printed information was historical research in book or monograph form. The target audience included parishioners, parents of high school students, and new members of Marianist lay communities.
NACMS has modeled the pamphlets on the popular Catholic Update series. Each issue can stand alone, but taken as a set, the pieces provide a broad overview of the special character and gifts of Marianist life. Things Marianist may be ordered as a single copy of an issue, in quantity to receive a discount, or in sets (one copy of each issue).
Each pamphlet includes an annotated bibliography of further reading on the topic. To date, ten issues have been printed; several have gone into a second printing, and 50,000 copies are now in circulation.
Click on titles below to read a brief description of each issue.
Algo Marianista - Porqué María?
Algo Marianista - Quien commenzó todo esto, de todas maneras?
Algo
Marianista - Quien Forma la Familia Marianista?
How Do Marianists Do Social Justice?
What Do You Mean, "I'm a Missionary"?
Can
You Explain What You Mean When You Say . . . ?
Whose Wine Is It? Reflections on the Discipleship of Equals in
Marianist Communities
What Is the Marianist Tradition of Prayer?
William Joseph Chaminade: Founder of the MarianistsClick on Image to Order
This text, the first biography of Father Chaminade, remains the most comprehensive account of his remarkable life, following him from his earliest days at the seminary in Mussidan, through the dangers of the French Revolution, the years of patient exile in Saragossa, the early years of re-Christianizing France, the foundation and growing pains of two religious orders, and the trials of the final years of his life, to his death. It was written by Father Joseph Simler, fourth Superior General of the Society of Mary, whose soul was deeply penetrated by the authentic spirit of the Founder. Often called the “Second Founder”, Father Simler was endowed with a unique understanding of Father Chaminade’s vision and charism. As Father Simler himself wrote in the “Forward”: “We have chosen as our guiding principle to present the facts such as they are, and not to yield to any subliminal wishful thinking, to treat these facts with simplicity and frankness, and not to be guided by some preconceived notion. Our primary concern is for the truth.”
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