light burden which, once experienced, turns out to be easy and comforting”.314 In boarding institutions, in fact, “special care should be taken to achieve a good formation of the hearts of the young, to instruct them correctly according to faith and religion, to give to them for a foundation true piety which honors God, sanctifies the souls, edifies one's neighbor, provides happiness for the family; piety which is solid, robust, freely performed, well understood and aimed at the exact observance of one's duties”.315 This is the first focal point of the educational process which sees how “another can be made active and capable of earning what he needs for an honest living in society through his own work”.316
Reason and Love are also the means which are expected to guide the method of correcting. “Instead of having recourse to severity which is often used to lead small children to act out of fear and hypocrisy rather than out of feeling and love, we should use the method of imitation and honour. If these are not abused we can do anything with the sensitive heart of the young”.317
3.Marcellin Champagnat (1789-1840) and the Marist Brothers
Marcellin Champagnat (1789-1840) ordained priest in 1816, founded the religious society of The little Brothers of Mary or the Marist Brothers at La Valla, (Loire, France) in l817. The Society was canonically recognised in 1824 and approved by the Holy See in 1863.318 Marcellin Champagnat is one of the most representative of those working to ‘recover’ children and for the positive prevention championed in France by some ten or more teaching Congregations especially at the elementary school level.319
In fact, the common aim of these Congregations was to “guarantee a future for the younger generations who were the main victims of the French Revolution and strengthen them beforehand against the disintegrating spirit ofthe 18th Century by providing children with a truly religious education”.320 “Children are the Church’s nurseries. It is thanks to children that the Church is renewed and faith and piety are kept alive”.321
The aim of the new Society, coming from a rural area, is defined in the following promise:
We commit ourselves to teaching all the needy children given us by the parish priest, gratis, and teaching them and all the children entrusted to us, catechism, prayers, reading, writing and all the other subject matters proper to elementary school, according need.322
Christian education and catechism have first place, but all the various elements of a human and cultural formation are brought together. The initial instructional framework is largely inspired by the method used by the Brothers of the Christian Schools and the 'little schools'. As far as catechesis is concerned, we can detect the impact of the method used by St Sulpice. But the orientation as a whole ends up
314 Ibid.,, part 7, chap. 7,art. 245, 93-94.
315 Ibid.,, part 5, chap.1, art. 124, 62.
316 Ibid., part 5, chap. 1, art 124, 62.8.
317 Regolamento del Pio Istituto, in Raccolta, 54.
318Other than largely pedagogical indications in the Constitutions, Regulations and Circulars, the constents of three
specific documents are fundamental: Guide des Écoles à l’usage des petits Frères de Marie, rédige d’auprès les
instructions du Vénérable Champagnat (1853); Avis leçons, sentneces et instructions du Vén. P. Champagnat expliqués
et développés par un des premiers disciples (1869): Le bon Supérieur ou les qualités d’un bon Frère Directeur d’après
l’esprit du vénéré P. Champagnat, Fondateur de l’Institut des Petits Frères de Marie (1869). Biographical indications
on M. Champagnat and the Litte Brothers of Mary can be found in the work by P. Zind, Les Nouvelles Congrégations
des Frères enseignants en France de 1800 à 1830 3 vols., (Saint-Genis-Lavalle: Montet 69, 1969), vol 2 Sources.
Bibliographie. Chronologie. Index,. 591-597 (various monographs on pedagogical and catechetical topics are listed). 319 On the original pedagogical significance of M. Champagnat’s activity and that of the Marist Brothers, cf. P. Zind, Les
Nouvelles Congregations, vol 1, 121-128, 200-222, 312-327, 384-390.
320 P. Zind, Les nouvelles Congregations, vol 1, 110.
321 Avis leçons, sentneces et instructions du Vén. P. Champagna,( Lyon: Vitte 1914), 19.
322 Cited by P. Zind, Les Nouvelles Congregations, vol 1., 201.