CHAMINADE, GUILLAUME JOSEPH, BL.

Founder of the Marianists and the Marianist Sisters;b. April 8, 1761, Périgueux (Dordogne), France; d. Jan. 22, 1850, Bordeaux. Chaminade was the youngest of the 15 children of a textile merchant. After ecclesiastical studies in Périgueux, Bordeaux, and Paris, he was ordained (1784) and earned a doctorate in theology (1785). He then joined his two brothers as a teacher in the seminary of Mussidan. During the French Revolution he refused to take the oath in support of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. As a nonjuring priest he exercised his ministry in disguise at Bordeaux until forced into exile in Spain (1797–1800). At the shrine of Our Lady of the Pillar in Saragossa he was inspired to found sodalities and religious societies. Upon his return to France he centered his activities in Bordeaux for the remainder of his life. He acted as administrator of the Diocese of Bazas (1800–1802) before his appointment as canon of the Bordeaux cathedral (1803). Chaminade was responsible for the return of many of the constitutional clergy and for the reestablishment of various religious societies. In 1816 he founded the Marianist Sisters; and in 1817, the Marianists. The origins of almost all pious works and benevolent institutions in Bordeaux during the first half of the 19th century have been traced to Chaminade's efforts. The Manuel du Serviteur de Marie (Bordeaux 1801) was Chaminade's sole published work, but his numerous writings are extant in MS form, and together with the notes taken by those attending his conferences, they supply a complete picture of his spirituality. A monument, topped by a statue of Mary Immaculate, marks his grave in Bordeaux. His cause was opened in 1909 and he was beatified by Pope john paul ii, Sept. 3, 2000, following the instantaneous, miraculous cure of an Argentinian woman's tumor.

Feast: Jan. 22.

Bibliography: h. rousseau, William Joseph Chaminade (Dayton 1914). g. angeli, Dottrina mariana del p. Chaminade (Subiaco 1976). k. burton, Chaminade, Apostle of Mary (Milwaukee 1949). m. chaminade, Our Lady's Tinker (St. Meinrad, Ind.1950). m. darbon, Guillaume-Joseph Chaminade (Paris 1946). g. doig klinge, Dos maestros espirituales: Guillermo José Chaminade y Fray Luis de Granada, 2d. ed. (Lima 1990). g. goyau, Chaminade, fondateur des Marianistes, son action religieuse et scolaire (Paris 1914). h. lebon, Dictionnaire de Spiritualité Ascétique et Mystique, 2:454–459. a. l. seebold, Social-Moral Reconstruction according to the Writings and Works of William Joseph Chaminade (Washington 1948). a. m. windisch, The Marianist Social System according to the Writings of William Joseph Chaminade (Fribourg, Switz. 1964).

[g. j. ruppel]