St. John Baptist de La Salle

St. John Baptist de La Salle

St. John Baptist de La Salle was born is Rheims, France in 1651. His childhood days were spent during the period of French history known as the 'Splendid Century' and was marked by endless wars and intermittent disturbances. The gap between the rich and the poor widened to an unprecedented extent: the former lived in lavishness, the latter in abject poverty.

Born in this morally and politically unstable era, St. La Salle was a descendant of a distinguished family. This did not blind him to the sufferings many other under-privileged peasants were experiencing at that time.

St. John Baptist de La Salle

Although little is known about his childhood, it seems that John Baptist decided to take on a priestly career at an early age. He received Christian education, and at the age of 19, entered the seminary of Saint Sulpice in Paris to prepare for priesthood. There, John Baptist found later turned out to be his future work - teaching.

In 1678, John Baptist was ordained priest, and from then on, started his life of teaching. In 1679, he took part in constituting a charity school for boys in France. At first, he met with numerous obstacles. He found the students undisciplined, the teachers poorly trained and worst of all, both the students and teachers of the newly formed school were alienated by traditional educators and teachers.

John Baptist made much effort to eliminate these difficulties. Realizing that "Good teachers make good schools and good schools make good men", he believed that the teachers could only be improved by proper training, and decided to let the teachers live with him, himself acting as the teachers' trainer. Although his action was at first controversial, it was later proved appropriate, as in 1684, he already had seven such schools running smoothly in Rheims.

Perhaps John Baptist's most significant contribution towards the entire industry of education in France was that he was able to bring education to children of all classes. Before his revolution, education in most European countries was only limited to the upper-class and those who could afford it financially. John Baptist later formed a religious organisation composed of 12 other teachers, the nucleus of the Christian Brothers with himself as the president. The organisation was founded upon his vision that everyone receive proper education and moral training.

John Baptist was shunned by many sides of French society. His teachings with French as a medium instead if Latin were greatly criticised by traditional teachers, who believed that Latin was the only truly civilised language suitable for teaching. But John Baptist stood fast and continued his work, while constantly improving the quality of education he was offering. New schools were opened, and John Baptist de La Salle's name became famous throughout France.

John Baptist's success was substantial, but he never became proud or overjoyed by his rewarding works. In fact, he always tended to hide behind his work, often gave credit to his teachers and helpers. In 1717, he stepped down from the leadership of the organisation, but remained a great influence on the Brothers and their fellows.

From devotion almost all his life to reforming education in France, John Baptist was gradually weakened physically. He died on Good Friday, April 7, 1791. He was canonised in 1900 by Pope Leo XIII and proclaimed 'Patron of all Teachers' by Pop Pius XII in1951. His feast day is celebrated on May 15.

The Christian Brothers (De La Salle Brothers) are now known the world over. Today 15,000 Christian conduct schools, colleges and universities in some 80 countries and their pupils number hundreds of thousands. In Asia, the Brothers have establishments in Burma, Cambodia, Ceylon, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

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