De La Salle High School - Delta Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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THE A THAN A SIAN Saint Uot)n baptist be Ta Salle Founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. AINT John Baptist De La Salle was born and baptized at Rheims. France, the 30th Cm day of April. 1651. From early childhood he gave evidence of those virtues that were to be so strikingly characteristic of his future years, particularly of that immense love for the poor and abandoned children for whose welfare he was to make the greatest sacrifices during a long, arduous, and painful life. Having completed his preparatory studies at the College of Good Children in his native city, he went to Paris to attend the celebrated seminary of St. Sulpice. His admirable practice of the virtues of humility and poverty and a faithful devotion to all the exercises of the Seminary characterized his Seminary days and prepared him for the exalted dignity of the priesthood. Deeply engraven upon his mind and heart were the words of Holy Writ: “Leave all and follow Me. In response to this injunction he renounced his wealth and his office of Canon of the Cathedral of Rheims and resolved to devote his life and talents to the education of the children of workmen, and the poor. who. on account of the negligence of their parents and that of the civil authorities, were in a most deplorable state, mentally and morally. As he daily passed groups of these neglected children on his way from his home to the Cathedral of Rheims. his heart went out to them. From time to time he assembled groups of these poor children and tried to inspire them with some sense of their dignity as children of God and heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Soon this learned Doctor found himself a common schoolmaster writing a-b-c lessons for his little friends. So great was the success of his efforts that he was soon obliged to look for more room and for other helpers. His magnetic enthusiasm persuaded a few young men to join him in his noble work. These he instructed in the principles of the spiritual life and in the science and art of teaching school, and with these, on Holy Trinity Sunday. 1684. he made the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and a vow to remain together to continue this work of educating the poor even if it were necessary to subsist only on bread and water. This was the foundation of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. To his young disciples he gave a code of Rules which he modified from time to time to meet different conditions: for them he wrote a beautiful little book of directions in the spiritual life and two volumes of meditations on the Gospels and on the lives of the Saints, and for their intellectual and professional training he established the first normal school, from which he sent forth teachers inspired with a love of their own sanctification and an ardent zeal for the salvation of the souls of their pupils. His venture was blessed by God and crowned with success. Wherever the “new teachers” were employed, scholars and masters became accustomed to the spirit of regularity and discipline. Clergy and laymen alike came and knocked at the Brothers' door asking if such a school as that of St. Maurice could be established elsewhere. Writers of those days tell us that these men were astonished when they learned that the schools were like the provinces of a kingdom, since both masters and pupils were everywhere subject to the same requirements. « 2 y