The following are three accounts of the initial inspiration, idea and early beginnings of the Society of Mary

1. Courveille’s Story

At the age of ten he caught smallpox which damaged his eyes. He could hardly see. His mother consulted doctors who told her it was incurable. After he grew up, he had a great desire to study to become a priest, but his bad eyesight made it impossible for him to study.

In 1809 he was very strongly inspired to make a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Le Puy, which was only five leagues away, to take oil from the lamp which burns before the statue of Our Lady and to rub his eyes with it. This he did. No sooner had he done so than he could perceive distinctly the smallest objects in the cathedral, and he has enjoyed excellent eyesight ever since.

In 1810 in the same church before the same miraculous statue, he promised the Blessed Virgin to devote himself entirely to her, to do whatever she wanted for the glory of Our Lord, for her own honour, for the salvation of souls. His whole thought was to become a priest and by exercising priestly zeal to fulfill this threefold vow.

In 1812 while renewing this same promise to Mary at the foot of the same altar, he heard, not with bodily ears, but with those of the heart, interiorly but very distinctly:

Here is what I want...

I have always imitated my divine Son in everything. I followed him to Calvary itself, standing at the foot of the cross when he gave his life for the salvation of all. Now in heaven, sharing his joy, I follow his path still in the work he does for his Church on earth. Of this Church, I am the Protectress. I am like a powerful army, defending and saving souls.

When a fearful heresy threatened to convulse the whole of Europe,my Son raised up his servant, Ignatius, to form a Society under His name, calling itself the Society of Jesus, with members called Jesuits, to fight against the hell unleashed against his Church. In the same way, in this last age of impiety and unbelief, it is my wish and the wish of my Son, that there be another Society, one consecrated to me, one which will bear my name, which will call itself the Society of Mary, and whose members will call themselves Marists, to battle against hell….

Question: “Was this interior word of Mary a true revelation like some that occur and which are very certain, even though nothing is heard with bodily ears, or was it just a strong inner inspiration?”

Reply: “I heard no words. It all happened inwardly, in my heart...! was astonished, dismayed. I spoke of it to no one, not even my directors. I figured it was a great illusion. The phenomenon repeated itself very often and I always disregarded it.”

In 1813 he entered the major seminary of Le Puy, and (he says) since it is right next to the cathedral, “I went almost daily to the foot of the altar to renew my promises.”

Inwardly, it seemed to him that the Blessed Virgin reproached him with all his hesitations and (since he felt great pain because of this) that she replied, inwardly also: Speak to your directors about It, disclose the matter to them, and you will see what they say.

He spoke to two of his directors, one of whom was M. Martel, the professor of moral theology, to whom he went to confession most frequently. Long enough after M. Courveille had opened his soul to them, they told him that the phenomenon seemed to be good, that it might well come from God and be pleasing to Him, that it was not to be disregarded....

He was on the verge of seeking out confreres who would begin to work with him, when (he says) “towards the last months of 1814, I was forced to leave the seminary of Le Puy for that of Lyons, by order of His Eminence Cardinal Fesch, archbishop of Lyons. It is to be noted that according to the new division of French dioceses, my native parish, which had belonged to Le Puy, was made part of Lyons.” “At what period were you at the major seminary of Lyons?” “In 1815 and 1816.”

He took as his director M. Cholleton, who was professor of moral theology, and he told him what he had told the directors of the major seminary of Le Puy.

“I spoke to several seminarians, specifically to the younger M. Colin, who spoke to his brother, who was a pastor.... We were about 12. We spoke as often as we could about the Society of Mary. This lasted until 1816, when we all went to Our Lady of Fourviêre to dedicate ourselves to the most holy Virgin. I offered the holy sacrifice alone. All the others received communion from me, those who were priests as well as those who were not. The older M. Colin had come to Lyons for the ceremony.”

(Mayet Mémoires, from two letters by Courveille)

2. Terraillon’s Story

The first Idea of the Society of Mary is due to Our Lady of La Puy. M. Courveille was afflicted with a grave Infirmity. What did he do to be cured? Since he had full confidence in Mary, he had recourse to this good mother. To secure her powerful protection more efficaciously, he vowed himself to Our Lady of Le Puy. He then set out quickly for this famous place of pilgrimage, fulfilled his vow, and his indisposition disappeared. From then on his gratitude knew no bounds. He looked for what he could do to express his gratitude to such a good mother. After thinking it over, he said to himself: ‘Wherever Jesus has altars, Mary usually has her small altar alongside. Jesus has his Society, and so Mary should have hers too.’ Filled with this happy Idea, he thought seriously about making it happen.

That was about 1815. He came to the major seminary of Lyons and immediately busied himself with carrying out his pious project. To this end he looked over the students in the seminary to see which ones might seem to have a calling. The first one to whom he talked about his plan was M. Declas from Belmont. This seminarian was greatly struck by what was said, and it made a deep impression on him. He came away full of enthusiasm for the project and thought only of talking about it with others who he felt would have a contribution to make in bringing it about.

He spoke first to M. Colin or myself. He does not remember which of us two he spoke to first. With both of us he started out with the words M. Courveille had used in speaking to him: ‘Wherever Jesus has altars, Mary also has her small altar alongside. Jesus has his Society, and so it is necessary that Mary have hers too.’ This message struck us both to an immense degree and left us kind of stupefied. We then shared our thoughts and reactions and decided to give ourselves fully to putting into effect the project that had appealed to us the first time we heard about it.

From that time on, the four of us began meeting. In those meetings we fed each other’s enthusiasm with the happiness of devoting ourselves to the success of such a beautiful work. First of all we resolved not to talk about our project outside, but instead to get down seriously to the business of finding ways of bringing the plan to a happy conclusion. We decided that each one of us on his own would look, at the possible candidates who seemed to him most suited to the work we envisaged, and then before telling them anything, we would talk about it among ourselves, so as not to go too fast. For this we met as often as we could, without however attracting notice, which was something we always avoided as carefully as possible.

We shared our secret with M. Cholleton, the moral professor. We asked his advice whenever necessary. The place where we met most frequently was the shrubbery in the garden of the country house. Sometimes we met in one of the rooms of the house or somewhere else, depending on circumstances. We used these meetings to inflame our hearts, at times with the thought that we had the happiness of being the first children of Mary, and sometimes with the thought of the great need of the people. From time to time, M. Courveille would give us short heart-warming talks. These short talks would usually revolve around the need to imitate Mary, especially her indescribable humility. He often repeated to us those beautiful words of King David: Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give the glory...

While always following the rules of prudence we had given ourselves, we gradually reached the number of twelve aspirants. I shall name here only those who have persevered to the end. They are the younger M. Colin, M. Declas, M. Champagnat, and M. Terraillon. We continued seeing each other and doing our little exercises until our ordination to the priesthood, which took place on the feast of St. Mary Magdalen, 22 July 1816. On the following day we went up to Our Lady of Fourvière to place ourselves and our project under Mary’s special protection. M. Courveille was the only one who said Mass, and I assisted him. The others were happy simply to receive communion, because they were saving their first Mass for their parish. We placed our names on the altar as a sign of our commitment. Then we received appointments as curates, and we went faithfully to our posts. We continued to obey our superiors scrupulously, as we had all together resolved to do.

(Etienne Terraillon: OM, vol. 2, doc. 750, 1-6, pp. 666-671)

3. Declas’ Story

The first idea of the Society of Mary was given to M. Courveille. He looked on it as a trick of the devil and tried to turn it away, but in vain, the more he tried, the more the idea stayed with him. (At this time he was at the major seminary of Le Puy, where he stayed for one year; this must have been in 1814.) One day he heard up to six Masses to get rid of the idea. When he couldn’t succeed, he decided to tell his confessor about it. His confessor encouraged him, told him that the thought came from on high, and to resist it no more, so as not to go against the designs of God.

However, since M. Courveille’s home parish was in the diocese of Lyons, according to the new division made after the Revolution, he had to move to his own diocese. The vicars general of Le Puy wanted to keep him, but despite their requests, M. Bochard (the vicar general of Lyons) refused to agree to it. Having been snatched from their hands by ecclesiastical authority, M. Courveille soon after arriving in Lyons went to pay his respects to M. Bochard, who asked him why the authorities in Le Puy wanted to keep him. He replied naively that it was because of the work of the Blessed Virgin Mary which he had in mind and which he hoped to set up in Le Puy. M. Bochard said to him: My friend, you will find in me as good a father as you had in Le Puy, and you will be able to do here what you wanted to do in Le Puy. M. Courveille left happy.

I was the first, despite my unworthiness, to whom he opened up his plan. It was in 1815, on a Wednesday, a holiday free day. Both of us were at the major seminary of Lyons. He told me that when he became a priest, he intended to do what St. Francis Regis had done and go through the rural areas for the sake of the poor people who often had greater need of outside priests than people in the cities or large towns who have a choice of priests, and are thus in greater danger of making bad confessions. He asked me if I wanted to do this sort of thing like him. I said ‘Yes’. He said no more at the time, and throughout the year he kept me with the thought, we shall be like Francis Regis, and that was all. But the day before we left for the holidays, he took me aside (until then he still had not spoken to anyone about his project) and told me: ‘You know, what I told you about earlier in the year is something serious. An order will be established which will be a little bit like the Jesuits, except that its members will be called Marists instead of Jesuits.’ We promised that we would write to each other during the holidays, and we kept our word.

When we came back we immediately started looking for companions. On his part, he spoke to P. Champagnat, P. Colin (our reverend superior), M. Mainand, his roommate, M. Seve, and others.... For my part I shared our project with M. Terraillon, M. Jacob.... Finally we were 15 seminarians. Then we explained it all to the moral professor, M. Cholleton. He began by saying a Mass for that intention. Then he lent us his room at the country house of the major seminary, and there we met in secret to encourage each other in the carrying out of this holy project.
Since things were going so well, we drew up a small formula in which we promised to pursue this work with all our strength. Before signing, I wanted to talk with M. Gardette (the seminary rector).... He told me: ‘You will get nowhere, because the diocesan missionaries of Lyons will be opposed to your plans.... I then signed. The others did also, except for three of them who held back when the time came for signing their names.

We continued to encourage each other for the rest of the year. At the end we were ordained priests, and when we were leaving, we said that each one should go to where Providence had sent him until the time came for us to meet and go to Le Puy, where the first idea of the Society had been given and where we would hove been well received. We wrote to each other, we visited sometimes, we even made a few recruits. Reverend Father Superior General brought his elder brother, the parish priest, into his plans, while I joined up M. Charles and M. Jilibert. Everything seemed to be going according to our wishes. M. Bochard seemed to share our views, and we believed that we were on the brink of realizing our project - which would be accomplished in fact only 20 years later. We were far from thinking it then.

(Étienne Déclas: OM, vol. 2, doc. 591, 5-10, pp. 397-402)