
Resources for the celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the Institute’s Mother House
The Marist Institute celebrates, until August 2025, the Bicentenary of the construction and inauguration of its mother house – Notre-Dame de l’Hermitage. On the occasion of this event, the international community of Notre-Dame de l’Hermitage has created a space on Champagnat.org where documents, reports, photos and a series of resources on this theme are available to the Marists of Champagnat. Other resources will be added in the coming weeks.
The community of Notre-Dame de l’Hermitage opened the Bicentenary Year on Pentecost Sunday, May 19, 2024, with a solemn Eucharist presided over by the Bishop of Saint-Etienne, Monsignor Sylvain Bataille, and attended by a good number of Brothers, lay Marists and friends of the house. Over the following months, various events have marked this jubilee. It will close on August 15, 2025, the Assumption of Mary and the patronal feast of the Institute, recalling the 200th anniversary of the blessing of the house’s first chapel.
1824-25
As soon as the land was purchased, on May 13, 1824, on the banks of the River Gier, near Saint-Chamond, Father Champagnat and the first brothers began building the Institute’s motherhouse. The foundation stone was blessed by Bishop Cholleton, Vicar General of the Diocese of Lyon. The house was completed the following year, in 1825. Since then, and having been used for various purposes, it has always remained a reference point for Marist life.
“The celebration of the Bicentenary of the mother house of the Institute is a unique opportunity to appreciate with gratitude the gift of the Marist charism that has been given to us and of which we are beneficiaries and responsible for continuing the mission in favor of children and young people, particularly the most vulnerable” (Br. Ernesto Sánchez, Superior General – March 2024).