Jean-Baptiste de La Salle
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| Jean-Baptiste de La Salle
John Baptist de La Salle | |
|---|---|
| File:Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, Pierre Leger, 1734.jpg Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, as painted by Pierre Léger in 1734 | |
| Saint | |
| Born | April 30, 1651 in Reims |
| Died | April 7, 1719 in Saint-Yon, Rouen on Good Friday |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | February 19, 1888 |
| Canonized | May 24, 1900 |
| Major shrine | Sanctuary of John Baptist de La Salle in the De La Salle Casa Generalizia in Rome, Italy. |
| Feast | Catholic Church: April 7; Lasallian Institutions: May 15 |
| Patron saint | Educators of the Youth; Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools; Lasallian Institutions |
| Quote Be driven by the love of God because Jesus Christ died for all, that those who live may live not for themselves but for him, who died and rose for them. Above all, let your charity and zeal show how you love the Church. Your work is for the Church, which is the body of Christ. | |
Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (John Baptist de La Salle) (born 30 April 1651 in Reims; died 7 April 1719 in Saint-Yon, Rouen) was a French priest, educational reformer, and founder of an international educational movement who dedicated more than forty years of his life to the education of the children of the poor. In the process, he standardized educational practices throughout France, wrote inspirational meditations on the ministry of teaching (along with catechisms, politeness texts, and other resources for teachers and students), and became the catalyst and resource for many other religious congregations dedicated to education that were founded in the 18th and 19th centuries.
When just 16 years old he was appointed a canon of Reims cathedral. He was ordained to the priesthood at the age of 27. Two years later he received a doctorate in theology. He would later leave his position as canon priest at Reims and found a religious community devoted to teaching, distributing his fortune to the poor during a particularly harsh winter.
In 1680 La Salle became involved in an educational venture that led to the founding of a new order, the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, also known as the De La Salle Christian Brothers, the De La Salle Brothers, or, most commonly in the United States, the Christian Brothers, often confused with a different order of the same name founded by Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice in Ireland.
De La Salle became involved in education little by little, without ever consciously setting out to do so. What began as a charitable effort to help one Adrian Nyel, a committed educator of the poor, to organize a group of marginally competent teachers in De La Salle's home town gradually became his life's work as, in his own words, one decision led to another until he found himself doing something that he had never anticipated. De La Salle wrote:
I had imagined that the care which I assumed of the schools and the masters would amount only to a marginal involvement committing me to no more than providing for the subsistence of the masters and assuring that they acquitted themselves of their tasks with piety and devotedness . . . Indeed, if I had ever thought that the care I was taking of the schoolmasters out of pure charity would ever have made it my duty to live with them, I would have dropped the whole project. ... God, who guides all things with wisdom and serenity, whose way it is not to force the inclinations of persons, willed to commit me entirely to the development of the schools. He did this in an imperceptible way and over a long period of time so that one commitment led to another in a way that I did not foresee in the beginning.
La Salle was a pedagogical thinker of note and is among the founders of a distinctively modern pedagogy. In 1685 La Salle founded what is generally considered the first normal school — that is, a school whose purpose is to train teachers — in Reims. Currently, about 6,000 Brothers and 75,000 lay and religious colleagues worldwide serve as teachers, counsellors and guides to 900,000 students in over 1,000 educational institutions in 84 countries, carrying out the work of the founder into the 21st century. He was canonized by Pope Leo XIII on May 24, 1900 and his feast is celebrated in the Catholic Church calendar on April 7th, and at La Sallian institutions on May 15. He was proclaimed as the Patron Saint of Teachers in 1950 by Pope Pius XII.
Philosophy and teachings
The order is commonly known as the Christian Brothers. His schools stressed practical skills and religious instruction rather than classical education. La Salle also pioneered teacher training colleges. His books on piety and on teaching methods were widely read.
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