St David’s Marist Inanda Celebrates St Marcellin Champagnat’s Feast Day

by Daluxolo Moloantoa · June 7, 2023

(Photos: Sheldon Reddiar)

St David`s Marist Inanda celebrated the feast day of St Marcellin Champagnat Day on June 6. The day is an annual celebration dedicated to celebrating the founder of the worldwide community of the Marist Brothers.

The day started with a Mass service to honour and remember the life and message of St Marcellin. The boys, staff, and families of St David’s Marist Inanda enjoyed a day filled with laughter, sunshine, and family spirit with a variety of activities including sports, fun games and indulging in delicious foods sold at the food stalls.

Sheldon Reddiar, religious education coordinator at the school, explained the significance of celebrating the day. “The importance to celebrate our founder`s day for all of us as Marists of Champagnat is to remind us to go back to where it began. To the humble beginnings of this young man, this young French priest who championed the idea of caring for and educating young people. He expressed this philosophy with a short but precise sentence, “to teach children one must love them”, he said.

This year`s celebration was marked by the addition of four new schoolhouses to add to the four traditional houses that have been part of the celebrations over the years. The four are the College House, the Orsmond House (named after former bishop of Johannesburg Reginald Orsmond), the Bishops House and the Benedict House (named after the late Pope Benedict VXI).

“Yes we have a French identity, but we are rooted here in Africa and South Africa particularly. In recognition of this fact, for this year and going forward we have added four new houses. They are the Daswa House (named after martyr and patron of teachers Blessed Benedict Daswa), the Plaatjie House (named after the South African intellectual, linguist and politician Sol Plaatjie), the Selima House, (named after Mr Phineas Selima, a long-time employee and legendary figure of the school), and the Brother Jude House (named after educator and former secretary-general of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference and former provincial-superior of the Marist Brothers in South Africa Brother Jude Pieterse).

We decided to name one of the new school houses in Bro Jude`s name following his recent passing. He was a pioneer in Catholic education, and our history as the Marist Brothers in South Africa would be very incomplete without mentioning his great contribution to our community, to education and to the struggle against apartheid education in the country,” he said.

The five Marist Brothers schools nationally plan to celebrate their Founder’s day with a joint celebration in October this year.