For Colin, Mary’s way in the early Church—present, prayerful, and unobtrusive—was the model for every Marist. The Society is called to do “an enormous amount of good” while remaining small, leaving room for Christ to be seen rather than the worker.

Jean-Claude was born on 7 August 1790 at Saint-Bonnet-le-Troncy. His parents, loyal to the Church amid revolution, suffered imprisonment and loss; both died by 1795, leaving him orphaned before age five. Raised by his uncle Sébastien, he entered minor seminaries at Saint-Jodard, Alix, and Verrières, then the major seminary of Saint-Irénée in Lyon—quiet, diligent, and drawn to a life of prayer.

Ordained on 22 July 1816, Colin joined eleven companions the next day, 23 July, climbing to Notre-Dame de Fourvière above Lyon. In the ancient chapel they pledged to establish the Society of Mary as soon as they could. Fellow seminarian Jean-Claude Courveille had spoken of Mary’s desire for missionaries bearing her name; Colin embraced the project and began drafting its first rule.

As curate with his brother Pierre in Cerdon (Bugey mountains), Colin gathered women who would found the Marist Sisters with Jeanne-Marie Chavoin. In 1824 he, Pierre, and Étienne Déclas began diocesan mission preaching—“Today the Society of Mary begins!” Marcellin Champagnat formed the Marist Brothers; lay Marists took shape as a Third Order. Colin was elected superior of aspirants in 1830.

Pope Gregory XVI approved the Society of Mary in 1836 and entrusted Western Oceania to the new congregation. Colin, elected Superior General on 24 September 1836, sent missionaries on Christmas Eve 1836 to the Pacific. He organized colleges and mission houses in France; by 1854 the institute numbered some 280 priests and brothers. Of the venture he said: “We will do the work of Mary on whatever distant shore.”

Colin resigned as Superior General on 9 May 1854 and retired to La Neylière to complete the Constitutions, definitively approved by Rome on 28 February 1873. He died there on 15 November 1875, aged 85. His spiritual writings were approved by theologians in 1907; the Cause for beatification was introduced in 1893 and raised to the apostolic level in 1908, when he received the title Venerable.

From one seed sown at Fourvière grew a tree with many branches—each founded or inspired by the original Marist project.

The Marist world continues to pray for the beatification of Venerable Jean-Claude Colin. The Cause was proposed at the General Chapter of 1893. Pope Pius X elevated it to the apostolic level on 9 December 1908, granting the title Venerable. After decades of historical research—including the four volumes of Origines maristes—the process was reintroduced in 2010; the General Chapter of 2017 voted unanimously to advance the Cause. Beatification now awaits a miracle attributed to his intercession, confirmed by the Holy See.