April 07 - St. John Baptist de La Salle is a French ecclesiastic and an innovator in the field of pedagogy, who dedicated his life to educating poor children. He is the founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.
Born on April 30, 1651, the eldest of eleven children (3 girls and 8 boys), he was the son of Louis de La Salle, Councillor at the Presidial of Reims, and Nicole de Moët de Brouillet. The family lives in the Hôtel de La Salle in Reims, still visible, currently 6 rue du Dr Jacquin. His father intended him for a legal career, but John felt a religious vocation. Tonsurated at the age of 11, he was destined for the priesthood. Trained at the Sorbonne and at the seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, he became a canon in Rheims on January 7, 1667, studied theology in Paris from 1670 and was ordained priest on April 9, 1678. Finally, in 1680, he received a doctorate in theology.
In his home town, he was entrusted with the foundation of parish schools for poor children. In 1679 he met Adrien Nyel and founded a free school for the poor and in 1681 he housed some poor teachers in his home. In 1683 he resigned his canonry and founded the Congregation of the Brothers of the Christian Schools on May 25, 1684. Subsequently he opened professional schools, Sunday schools and houses of education for street children.
Many opposed the foundation of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, but John Baptist de La Salle insisted and went to the end of his project. He then realised that what the children lacked most were teachers of value. So he recruited young teachers to whom he proposed a form of life consecrated to God which would nevertheless leave them with a lay character. For them, he wrote a kind of rule in this spirit. For the spiritual and pedagogical formation of the brothers, he opened the first novitiate at Vaugirard in 1692, and in 1698 he finished drawing up the rules of the Congregation. In 1688, he opened the first schools in Paris, the first one at 12 rue Princesse in the 6th arrondissement, where he came to live.
In 1694, he was elected superior of the new congregation and endowed it with a more elaborate rule. He continued his pedagogical and spiritual work, notably writing a series of works for teachers. Called to Rouen in 1705 by Archbishop Colbert, Archbishop of Rouen, he opened a boarding school in Saint-Yon and in 1714 brought the novitiate from Paris. Towards the end of his life, he resigned from his duties. He died in the mother house he had set up in Rouen. After his death, his institute continued to develop rapidly in France and throughout the world, serving as a reference for teaching congregations.
He is buried in a chapel in the church of Saint-Sever. In 1734, his body was brought back to Saint-Yon in the chapel of his boarding school, then in 1835 in the chapel of the Ecole Normale de Rouen. His remains were then placed, in 1888, on the occasion of his beatification, in the chapel of the Jean-Baptiste-de-La-Salle boarding school, still in Rouen. However, following the anticlerical persecutions at the beginning of the 20th century, the remains were moved to Lembeek in Belgium on June 29, 1906 and then to Rome on January 25, 1937, where they are still kept by the Mother House of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. His beatification process began in 1835 and on May 8, 1840 he was declared venerable. He was proclaimed Blessed on February 19, 18887 and canonized on May 24, 1900 by Leo XIII. His feast day is set for April 7. In 1937 his relics were transferred to Rome. On May 15, 1950, Pope Pius XII made him the "patron of all educators".
Two innovations should be noted: the lesson is not given individually but in a class and one learns to read in French and not in Latin. These innovations have shaken up pedagogy in France.
