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

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THE ATH AN ASIAN In fact, from all sides came demands for the Brothers to open new schools. By the year 1700. nineteen years previous to his death, the Founder of the Brothers saw his work flourishing in the cities of Paris. Marseilles. Grenoble. Rouen. Rheims. Mcnde. and Dijon, as well as in many other towns and villages throughout the kingdom of France. When we learn that these schools were everywhere well attended, that, for instance, the school in the parish of St. Sulpice in Paris had an enrollment of more than one thousand children, we may form some idea of the social and spiritual influence produced by them on the humbler classes during the age of Louis XIV. The zealous Founder saw his work grow from year to year until the day of his death. Good Friday. April 7. 1719. when the young Institute numbered 274 Brothers teaching 9.885 pupils in S7 schools. We must not imagine, however, that the career of St. John Baptist De La Salle was nothing but a succession of triumphs. His life, like that of his Divine Master, whom he so closely followed, was filled with sufferings and trials. Accused unjustly by those who should have espoused his cause, forsaken by those he had trusted most, persecuted by rival laymen and misguided ecclesiastics, obliged to travel on foot, long distances, with little food and wretched lodging, the holy man of God never lost faith in his cause or in that of Providence in which he had placed his trust. Faith was his guiding star, and the spirit of faith he wished to be the spirit of his Institute as the star of faith is its seal. Under this motto. “Signum Fidei. ’ thousands of young men have enlisted and served in the ranks of the sons of St. John Baptist De La Salle for the past two hundred years. On every continent millions of boys and young men have sat at the feet of these humble Brothers and. while hearing those principles that make for material success, have also heard those greater eternal principles: “that God created us to know. love, and serve Him”: “that the things that are temporal will soon pass away, and that virtue and grace are the true goods that alone can produce for us the happiness of heaven.” The Supreme Authority of the Church, in the person of Pope Benedict XIII. set the seal of her approval on the Institute of the Brothers when he solemnly approved it in 1725. two hundred years ago, and on May 15. 1900. his Holiness Pope Leo XIII canonized St. John Baptist De La Salle. In the decree of Canonization, he said: “Benediction, glory, and thanksgiving to Jesus Christ. God and Redeemer of the human race, who hath clothed His faithful servant. John Baptist De La Salle, with the splendor of his glory, and who. knowing our needs, has proposed him to us as a model, in order that we may better know the supereminent charity of Jesus Christ which surpasses all knowledge, and be filled unto the fulness of God.” i 3 h