Jean-Claude Courveille
| Jean-Claude Courveille | |
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| Born |
15 May 1787 Usson-en-Forez, Forze, France |
| Died | 15 September 1866 (aged 79) Solesmes Abbey, Sarthe, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Priest |
| Known for | Founder of the Society of Mary |
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Jean-Claude Courveille (15 May 1787 – 15 September 1866) was a Catholic priest who took the initiative of establishing the Marists, or Society of Mary, of which he was the first superior general. Following a scandal, he retired to Cistercian abbey of Notre-Dame of Aiguebelle, then Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye and finally to the Benedictine Solesmes Abbey, where he died.
Jean-Claude Courveille was the son of Marguerite Beynieux and Claude Courveille, a merchant of Usson-en-Forez. He was born in this town on 15 May 1787. During the French Revolution his parents, devout Catholics, hid in their house a statue of the Virgin that was venerated in the village as "Our Lady of Chambriac" and was said to have miraculous powers. The boy suffered from smallpox in 1797, and injury to his cornea made him half-blind. He lost his father in 1805.
The statue of Our Lady of Le Puy-en-Velay in Le Puy Cathedral was burned during the revolution on 8 June 1794 by Louis Guyardin, who had been sent by the National Convention to the department of Haute-Loire. Despite this, in 1809 Courveille went on a pilgrimage to the cathedral of Le Puy-en-Velay. He said he was cured of his blindness by means of the Virgin and decided, in thanksgiving, to devote himself to the service of Mary. His historians have noted that when he spoke of the Virgin all his listeners fell under his charm.
Courveille entered the minor seminary of Verrières-en-Forez. There he had as classmate Marcellin Champagnat. He then continued his studies of Latin at the home of his maternal uncle, Mathieu Beynieux, then pastor of Apinac. The seminarian again made a pilgrimage to Puy-en-Velay. As he prayed in the cathedral on 25 August 1812 he claimed to have received a revelation of the Virgin who wanted to have a religious congregation under the name of Mary. "Since this moment, very often, he seemed to hear an inner voice, that of the Mother of God, asking him to found the Society of Mary. On one day he attended six consecutive Masses to get rid of what he considered to be an illusion".
On All Saints' Day in 1812 Courveille entered the seminary of Le Puy-en-Velay, but had to leave to join that of St. Irenaeus of Lyon, as the Concordat had attached his parish of origin to this diocese.
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