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Homepage Office News About St Declans N.S. Sports News Who was St Declan? History of St Declans N.S. Class Work Special Events School Archives	St. John Baptist De La Salle {1651 – 1719} Feast: May 15^th Surprisingly not many are familiar with the person, the achievement, and the vision of Saint John Baptist de La Salle. {Click here for the shorter version} {Take the St. De La Salle Quiz} Here is his story. John Baptist de La Salle, son of Zachary and Elizabeth, was born in Reims, France on April 30th 1651, He was the oldest son {…..out of a family of eleven – four of whom died very young} of a well-to-do family, prominent among the upper merchant class. His father was a magistrate. John received the tonsure at age eleven in the Chapel of the Archbishop of Reims on March 11^th 1662 and was named Canon of the Reims Cathedral at sixteen. In those days you did not have to be a priest to become a Canon. In 1670 he went to Paris where he followed courses in the Sorbonne while staying at the Seminary of Sulpice College which was a kind of hostel for students of theology. Though he had to assume the administration of family affairs after his parents died {within a short period of time of each other}, he completed his theological studies and was ordained a priest on April 9^th, 1678 by Archbishop Le Tellier of Reims. Two years later in 1680 he received the degree of Doctor of Theology graduating with top honors from the University College in Reims. At that moment, as a devout 30 year old priest, recently ordained and with first class academic credentials, he had an influential network of family and friends ready to further his prospects for a distinguished career in the Church. It was only a matter of time before he might have become a bishop or maybe a cardinal. And so he might have lived and died and then been completely forgotten. But something happened to change that scenario. The young Father De La Salle suddenly found himself involved with a small group of barely literate young men trying to teach poor boys in the rundown charity schools in the parishes of the city. For these men, it was a living of sorts, at least until something better might come along. In those days, schoolteachers had no social or professional status, no standards to meet, and little motivation to stay with the job any longer than necessary. The leader of that little group in Reims was an older layman, Adrien Nyel by name. He was a good man, enthusiastic and idealistic, but with little sense of how to run an organization, or how to keep a good thing going once he got it started. And so it happened, almost by accident, that Father De La Salle gradually assumed the leadership of that nondescript band of lay teachers. At first he helped pay their rent. Then he moved them into a house near his own. When he saw close at hand how uncultured and uneducated they were, he invited them to his home for meals to try to improve their knowledge, their religious practice, and their table manners. Then, in 1680 much to the shock and chagrin of the family, he decided to bring them into his home to live. Finally, in 1682, he moved with them to a rented house in a poor neighborhood. From that center, this first community of teachers staffed three parish schools. Since only a religious community could furnish a permanent and continuing supply of teachers serving without pay, an Institute, a sort of teaching brotherhood of young men who were attracted to a life of service, was formed. The novice teachers took the three usual vows, but not Holy Orders. Another vow, that they would dedicate their lives to teaching the poor, specializing as catechists, was added. A rule was drawn up; it provided that the Brothers should be laymen and that no priests could ever become members! It was the beginning of what today is the worldwide Institute of the Brothers of The Christian Schools.Through all of this, De La Salle himself did not fully realize what was happening. It was only years later, as he himself tells us, that he realized that God was leading him, one step at a time, to commit himself entirely to the development of the schools. Father John Baptist soon decided to resign his canonry to devote his full attention to the establishment of schools and the training of teachers. He had inherited a considerable fortune, and this might have been used to further his aims, but on the advice of a saintly priest, Father Barre, of Paris, and after much prayer for God's guidance, he decided against this course. He sold what he had and sent the money to the poor of the province of Champagne, where a famine was causing great suffering. His enterprises must henceforth depend on the charity of others, and from this time on his own life was lived in the true ascetic pattern. The Institute grew rapidly, and soon there were so many applications from young men of fifteen to twenty years of age that a junior novitiate was formed. Also, from many parts of France, parish priests were sending their promising young men to be trained so they might return to serve as schoolmasters in their own villages. What may be considered the first Normal School was now functioning, and this became the first novice house of the order. Here Father John Baptist wrote his “Manual for Christian Schools”, setting forth his original and practical ideas of education. To appreciate the significance of what this reluctant newcomer on the educational scene was able eventually to achieve, we have to remind ourselves of the school situation in the France of 1680. The university system, which provided a classical education from grade school through to the doctorate, was in place and had been for centuries. But that was accessible, as it had been to De La Salle, only to those who were socially and financially in a position to afford it. Apart from the university schools, the only elementary education available, and that also at a price, was from teachers in what were called the “little schools” who made a living running a school by themselves, usually in their own homes. As for the poor, nobody much cared. Although the pastors were supposed to provide charity school for their parishes, most of them were poorly run, there was little discipline, attendance was not enforced, the students were unkempt and prone both to lice and vice, the teachers were incompetent and poorly paid, and the school itself might be closed down for long periods at the slightest excuse. True, there were some attempts in the 17th century to reform the parish charity schools, but these initiatives were widely scattered and had little permanent impact on the distressing educational scene. De La Salle realized that the unskilled workers and the poor, being usually of little education, and occupied all day in gaining a livelihood for themselves and their families, could not give their children the instruction they needed, much less a suitable Christian education. It was to procure this advantage for the children of the workers and the poor, that he established what he called the Christian Schools. But the Institute of the Christian Schools might not have been established at all if De La Salle had not been willing to put his own spiritual formation and advanced education at the service of those in need. His enterprise met opposition from the ecclesiastical authorities who resisted the creation of a new form of religious life, a community of consecrated laymen to conduct gratuitous schools "together and by association." The schools for poor boys in Paris were attacked by Jansenists, by lay teachers and tutors, who perhaps felt their own position and livelihood was being jeopardized The educational establishment resented his innovative methods and his insistence on gratuity for all, regardless of whether they could afford to pay. After a time it became evident that the schools had come to stay, and the persecutions gradually ceased. Gradually De La Salle and his Brothers succeeded in creating a network of quality schools throughout France that featured instruction in the vernacular, students grouped according to ability and achievement, integration of religious instruction with secular subjects, well-prepared teachers with a sense of vocation and mission, and the involvement of parents. Ultimately he succeeded in creating a new type of school system for the elementary education of the poor, a new set of standards that would transform teaching school into a profession and a vocation and established new community of consecrated lay teachers as a new form of religious life in the Church. To achieve all of this, to enter into the world of the poor with creativity and authenticity, Father De La Salle had to sacrifice all of his personal ambition, his family fortune, his ecclesiastical honors, his comfortable lifestyle, and even his person reputation. People thought he was crazy. His own family disowned him. The educational authorities of the time had him hailed into court, condemned, and fined because the educational policies he introduced threatened to break down the established social barriers. In his determination to give rich and poor the same education in the same classroom, and all for free, he had to act against the law. Then there were the Church authorities. Pastors, bishops, and even the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, hounded De La Salle relentlessly. They could neither understand nor control this persistent innovator who didn’t want his Brothers to be priests, who had his own ideas about how to run a school, and how to make the Christian message appealing to those who rarely heard good news of any kind. De La Salle did not limit his educational vision to gratuitous elementary schools for the poor. A new departure was made at the request of King James II of England, who was then living in exile. He urged the founding of a college for the sons of his adherents, mainly Irish, who were living in France, and Father John opened such a school for fifty young men. He also realized that there were other needs. Well trained teachers were high on his list of priorities. On three distinct occasions he was able to establish experimental training schools for lay teachers. Aware that there was no provision at the time for working teenagers to continue their education, De La Salle founded a Sunday program of advanced courses in practical subjects just for them. He opened a boarding school with offerings in advanced technical or pre-professional courses, unavailable, unheard of, and unthinkable in the colleges and universities. He pioneered in what we now call programs in special education. He opened one of the first institutions in France to specialize in the care and education of young uneducated and often troublesome teenagers. Father John Baptist's later years were spent at the College of St. Yon, in Rouen, where the novitiate had been transferred in 1705, after it had functioned for some years in Paris. In 1716 he resigned from the active direction and government of the Institute and from then on would give no orders, and lived like the humblest of the brothers, teaching the novices and young boarders. He wrote for them several treatises, including “A Method of Mental Prayer”. Worn out by austerities and exhausting labours, he died at Saint Yon near Rouen on April 7^th in 1719 on Good Friday, only weeks before his sixty-eighth birthday. Painting by Giovanni Gagliardi {1906} is a lot more severe, austere and real in comparison to Grellets {1859} compassionate version of his death. For many days crowds filled past his body and paid him high respect. He was buried after a simple ceremony in the grounds of St Yon. In spite of internal difficulties, chiefly concerning the degree of austerity to be observed by the Brothers, the schools spread and flourished up to the French Revolution. During that period of persecution, the Christian Brothers were at one point reduced to twenty active members. However, when the ban was lifted by Napoleon I in 1799, the community sprang back to life with remarkable resilience. During the nineteenth century the schools expanded steadily; then, from 1904 to 1908, there was another setback: 1285 establishments were closed by legislative decree in France. Meanwhile the Brothers had established themselves in other countries of Europe, in England, Ireland, the Levant, North and South America, the West Indies, and Australia. Their first school in the United States was founded in 1846; today many of them are on the college level. The creative vision of this man has survived for more than 300 years and inspires the Brothers and their lay colleagues in more than 80 countries all over the world. John Baptist de La Salle was a pioneer in founding training colleges for teachers, reform schools for troubled teenagers, technical schools, and secondary schools for modern languages, arts, and sciences. His work quickly spread through France and, after his death, continued to spread across the globe. In 1900 John Baptist de La Salle was declared a Saint. In 1950, because of his life and inspirational writings, he was made Patron Saint of all those who work in the field of education. John Baptist de La Salle inspired others how to teach and care for young people, how to meet failure and frailty with compassion, how to affirm, strengthen and heal. At the present time there are De La Salle schools in 80 different countries around the globe. Born at Reims - France April 30^th 1651 Ordained a priest - April 9^th 1678 Died - April 7^th 1719 Beatified - February 19^th 1888 Canonized by Pope Leo XIII on May 24^th 1900 Proclaimed Patron of Christian Teachers by Pope Pius XII on May 15^th 1950. ___________________________________________________________________ Shorter Version of the Life Story of …… Saint John Baptist De La Salle {1651 – 1719} {Back to the top of the page} John was born on April 30^th 1651 in Reims, France into a holy and important family. John Baptist de La Salle even at age eleven showed a great interest in the priesthood and was named Canon of the Reims Cathedral at sixteen. Though his had to look after all of his family affairs after his parents died, he completed his theological studies and was ordained a priest on 9^th April 1678. Two years later he received the doctorate in theology. Meanwhile he became somewhat reluctantly involved with a group of rough and barely literate young men who wanted to establish schools for poor boys. Almost by accident, the young De La Salle gradually assumed the leadership of the small group of lay teachers. Moved by the plight of the poor who seemed so “far from salvation either in this world or the next”, he decided to put his talents and good education at the service of the children “often left to themselves and badly brought up” To be more effective, he abandoned his family home, moved in with the teachers, gave up his position as Canon and his wealth, and so formed the community that became known as the Brothers of the Christian Schools. His work met opposition from a number of priests and religious people who resisted the creation of a new form of religious life. They didn’t like the idea of holy men teaching children for free. Many educated people of the time disagreed with his new methods and his idea that schools should be free to all, regardless of whether they could afford to pay or not. Nonetheless De La Salle and his Brothers succeeded in creating a network of quality schools in France that featured teaching in French, students grouped according to ability and achievement, integration of religious instruction with other subjects, well prepared teachers with a mission and a strong belief in education, and the involvement of parents. In addition, De La Salle pioneered in programs for training lay teachers, Sunday courses for working young men, and one of the first schools in France for the care and education of young troublesome boys. Worn out by the pressure of hard work, he died at Saint Yon near Rouen early on Good Friday, only weeks before his sixty-eight birthday. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Take the St. De La Salle Quiz. {Back to the top of the page} 1. How old was De La Salle when he died? 2. In which century was he born? 3. What Latin words can be found on the De La Salle crest? 4. True or false… he was born into a poor family. 5. How different were the schools in De La Salle’s time to those of today? 6. Why did the clergy of his time resist so many of his new ideas? 7. Fill in the missing word. De La Salle offered poor children an education for _ _ _ _. 8. Can you list some of his pioneering ideas which were unthinkable at the time? 9. How many were in his family? 10. What happened in 1950?