William Joseph Chaminade
| Guillaume-Joseph Chaminade, S.M. (Blessed William Joseph Chaminade, S.M.) |
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| Priest and religious founder | |
| Born | 8 April 1761 Périgueux, Périgord, Kingdom of France |
| Died | 22 January 1850 Bordeaux, France |
| Venerated in |
Roman Catholic Church (Marianists) |
| Beatified | 3 September 2000 by Pope John Paul II |
| Feast | 22 January |
Guillaume-Joseph Chaminade, (Périgueux, 8 April 1761 - Bordeaux, 22 January 1850) was a French Catholic priest who survived persecution during the French Revolution and later founded the Society of Mary, usually called the Marianists, in 1817. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 3 September 2000 his feast day is celebrated on 22 January.
The Marianist Family's other three branches—the married and single men and women of the Marianist Lay Communities, the consecrated laywomen of the Alliance Mariale, and the Religious Sisters known as the Daughters of Mary Immaculate—also look to Chaminade as a founder or inspiration.
Chaminade was born in 1761 in Périgueux to Catherine Bethon and Blaise Chaminade, in the former province of Périgord, now the Department of Dordogne. He was the 14th child of deeply religious parents. Three of his brothers became priests. Feeling called to serve in this way as well, he entered a minor seminary in Mussidan at the age of ten. He was ordained a priest in 1785 for the local diocese.
In 1790, after the start of the French Revolution, Chaminade moved to Bordeaux. There he became an enemy of the state by defying the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which would have required him to take an oath affirming the Revolution's secular values and disclaiming the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. He secretly continued to work as a priest, risking a possible death penalty. One of his allies in this work was the Venerable Marie-Thérèse Charlotte de Lamourous (1754–1836), whom he later assisted in founding Bordeaux's Miséricorde (House of Mercy) for "fallen women".
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