Our Marist Values
Assumption College is an inclusive and transformative community, inspiring one another to shape the future with audacity and hope. Our Marist values guide how we live, learn, and relate to one another:
- Presence: Being genuinely present to others, building relationships of trust and care
- Value Simplicity: Living with honesty and humility, doing good quietly without pretence
- Family spirit: Creating a community of warmth, acceptance, and mutual respect
- Love of work: Valuing effort and perseverance, fostering teamwork, and recognising the dignity and purpose of work
- Achieved ‘in the way of Mary’: Following Mary’s example of courage, compassion, and faith, bringing a Marian face to all we do
Our strength of alignment to our values lived every day underpins our approach to guiding students to grow as reflective, compassionate global citizens.
Our Marist Foundations
Marcellin Joseph Benedict Champagnat was born at Le Rosey, a hamlet near St Etienne in France. On 20 May 1789, the same year as the French Revolution. He attended school in the village of Marlhes. His early experience of education as a student formed his desire to teach young people with a dignity and respect that was lacking in traditional education methods.
As a young adult in post revolution France he was inspired to join the priesthood to help rebuild the Church. Following his mother’s example, Marcellin had a great devotion to Mary and he was delighted to find she had an honoured place in the Seminary. He found friends in the Seminary who shared similar ideals and goals in life. They planned an institute in honour of Mary, and their hope was to include Priests, Religious and lay people; a radical idea for the time and in which the Marist Fathers, Marist Sisters, Marist Missionary Sisters and the Marist Brothers have their origins.
He was ordained in 1816 at the age of 27 and his first appointment was to the parish of La Valla. He was shocked to discover a dying young boy who did not know God. This spurred his determination to begin the Order of which he had dreamed, to educate the rural poor so that they might all know they are loved by God.
Saint Marcellin Champagnat founded the Marist Brothers in 1817 in rural France, along with his fellow students after their ordination. They committed themselves in the chapel of Fourviere in Lyon to follow in the Way of Mary. His educational philosophy was simple: “they should love them (the children), and love them all equally.”
St Marcellin Champagat’s vision for education lives on today in the 600+ Marist schools, educating young people in more than 80 countries globally.
2026 Marist Theme
Each year, Marist Formation provides Marist schools with a new theme to guide reflection and action. This year’s theme, Full of Grace – Transform the World with God’s Love, is beautifully captured in Sue Orchison’s icon Washing of the Feet, part of her series The Way of the Family.
In this image, Jesus kneels to wash the feet of his disciples—a quiet yet revolutionary act of humility and service. It reveals grace in its most tangible form: undeserved, unmeasured, and freely given. Jesus, “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), chooses not to command but to serve, inviting us to do the same.
This theme challenges us to say “yes” to grace, as Mary did, and to embody God’s love in our everyday lives. In a world longing for peace and hope, grace calls us to kneel, to listen, and to serve. When we receive grace, live it, and become it, we do more than reflect God’s love—we help transform the world.
