---

Historically Marists were envisaged as different branches of a single congregation, the "Society of Mary". The original plan of priests, brothers, sisters and lay people all working under one leader or Superior General, was too complicated for the authorities in Rome to grasp and too full of potential difficulties, so the project was broken up into separate parts. The wider international Marist Family today comprises Brothers, Fathers, Laity and Sisters - all springing to life from the same original inspiration, like branches of the same tree.

As Marists our prayer, our community life, and the apostolates we choose flow from the one same concern: to think, to judge, to feel, to act, in all things as Mary did.

The Marist Fathers were founded in 1836, by Jean Claude Colin and arrived in Ireland in 1861.