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Collège Champittet has been shaping young minds for more than 120 years. Our heritage of Swiss tradition, international innovation and humanistic values is at the heart of our educational approach today. But did you know that the buildings of our Pully campus also reflect the history of our school?
Our Champittet secondary students learn and grow in a space that forms part of our school’s identity: our St Bernard building. This facility was built in 1958 under the leadership of the Congregation of Canons of the Great Saint Bernard, who ran Collège Champittet from 1951 to 1998. The building is named after the Congregation’s founder, Saint Bernard of Menthon.
Different sources give Bernard of Menthon’s date of birth as either around 1020 or 923. Devoted to the Church, he became a priest and an archdeacon, making it his mission to care for travellers and the poor. He founded several hospices to ensure the safe passage of travellers through the formidable mountain passes of the Alps. Canonised by Pope Innocent XI in 1681, Saint Bernard is the patron saint of mountaineers, travellers and the inhabitants of the Alps.
Saint Bernard’s legacy also lives on in the Great St Bernard Pass and the Great St Bernard Tunnel linking the Swiss canton of Valais with Aosta in Italy – and, of course, in the beloved rescue dogs that bear his name. Today, he reminds us all of the importance of hospitality, generosity and pastoral care – values which we seek to instil and uphold at Collège Champittet.
Our St Augustin building (“St Augustine” in English), home to Collège Champittet’s administration, was established in 1910. At that time, it was called Ancien Collège (Old College). Today, this historic building is listed in the architectural census of the canton of Vaud.
Built only a few years after Champittet’s founding in 1903, St Augustin stands as an inspiring reminder of our school’s heritage and history. In 2016, the building was renamed in honour of Saint Augustine – a fitting tribute to our school’s dedication to cultivating intellectual curiosity and reflection.
Widely regarded as the most significant Christian thinker after St Paul, Augustine of Hippo was born in 354 in southern Algeria. He was a brilliant student, driven on a constant quest for truth. Later, he became a bishop who also took on multiple roles in his extraordinarily rich lifetime, including as philosopher, theologian, mystic, poet, orator, polemicist, writer and pastor.
In his writings, Saint Augustine reconciled faith and reason, speaking of his inner life and the history of his heart. He highlighted what he called the “inner trinity”: memory, intelligence and will. With his theological ideas including doctrines on original sin, grace, free will, the nature of evil and just war theory, his influence extends across Western civilisation, even to the present day: Pope Leo XIV is an Augustinian.
May our historic campus continue to inspire generations of thinkers and leaders!