Marcellin Champagnat in Athens!

A few days ago, a beautiful symbolic painting was completed adorning a large wall in the courtyard of the primary school of the Leonin Establishment in Athens.  It represents Saint Marcellin Champagnat, Founder of our schools, teaching children in Athens! Although Saint Marcellin himself never travelled to Athens or Greece during his lifetime, his thoughts, ideas, values and vision of education are widely spread in Greek society, thanks to the Marist Brothers who have been in Greece since 1907 (l’Hermitage Province).
Thousands of children and young people have attended the Leonine School in Athens during its years of operation, as well as the Leonine School in Nea Smyrni. The two Marist schools in Greece offer children and young people a complete education based on unchanging Christian and Marist values.  Therefore, their work is particularly well-known in Greek society because the education they provide is considered, by common consent, to be of a high standard, substantial and timeless.
It is good that this painting is not in the classrooms, but in the area of entertainment, leisure and sports for the students, reminding all of us, children and teachers, that Marcellin’s vision lives on among us today.
The work by the painter Mr. Kitanidis was enthusiastically received by the young students of the Leonin Primary School in Athens, as well as by the school staff in general.