[1] Jean-Claude, born on 7 August 1790 at the hamlet of Barbery, in the Beaujolais region of central France, the son of Jacques Colin and his wife Marie Gonnet, who had married in 1771.

He was the eighth of a total of nine children: Claudine, Jean, Mariette, Sébastien, Jeanne-Marie, Pierre, Anne-Marie (who died at birth), Jean-Claude and Joseph.

An order of arrest was issued against Jacques Colin for his open support of the local parish priest, Benoît-Marie Cabuchet, who had opposed the Constitution and was consequently hunted by the revolutionary authorities.

In these years Jean-Claude developed a tendency to scruples which gave him much trouble, but which was in later life to make him sensitive to people struggling with similar difficulties.

[3] When he reached the age of fourteen, Jean-Claude, accompanied by his elder brother Pierre, entered the minor seminary of Saint-Jodard, a kind of secondary school for boys preparing for priesthood.

Jean-Claude was subsequently transferred to continue his secondary studies in similar institutions at Alix (in 1809), and finally at Verrières (in 1812), where he was a contemporary of Marcellin Champagnat and John Vianney.

While being shy and liable to serious illness and despite the doubts raised by his teachers about his suitability for an active pastoral life, Jean-Claude handled his studies without difficulty and was among the top students.

Courveille had been cured of partial blindness after praying to Our Lady of Le Puy before her statue in Le Puy Cathedral and came to the inner conviction that just as there had arisen at the time of the emergence of Protestantism a religious Society bearing the name of Jesus, whose members called themselves Jesuits, so at this time of Revolution there should be a Society bearing the name of Mary, whose members would call themselves Marists.

However, For the moment, till that happened, as assistant priest at Cerdon, Jean-Claude spoke to his brother of his version of a future the Society of Mary, gaining Pierre's eager adhesion.

Pierre, in the meantime, showed his determination by convincing two women living in the parish, Jean-Marie Chavoin and Marie Jotillon to join them in their idea.

Their number increased, and in spite of the opposition of the bishop, who wished to make the society a diocesan congregation, Colin obtained (1834) from Gregory XVI the Papal bull approving the Lay Confraternity or Association of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the Conversion of Sinners and the Perseverance of the Just.

During the eighteen years of his administration (1836-1854) Colin showed great activity, organizing the different branches of his society, founding in France missionary houses and colleges.