How Saint John Baptist de La Salle became a revolutionary

Editor’s note: Religious Brothers Day is observed every May 1, on the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker. Today we honor religious brothers in the Archdiocese of Newark with a look at the life and work of the founder of the De La Salle Brothers.

The son of a wealthy French wine merchant, John Baptist de la Salle was not your typical revolutionary. All he wanted was to be a humble priest. John Baptist’s religious vocation came early, at age 11. He soon became a canon of Rheims Cathedral, where he sang the Divine Office every day and devoted the rest of his time to good works and studying philosophy and the classics on his path to the priesthood.

As a “wellborn” man of the seventeenth century, it was understood that John Baptist de la Salle would never need to get his hands dirty. By the time he was ordained in 1678 at the age of 26, La Salle should have had a comfortable life, shielded from many of the concerns of the everyday world.

The Lord had other plans for him, however. As La Salle later put it, “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 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.”

A growing awareness

During his years of prayer and study, La Salle became aware of the plight of the poor and felt drawn to help them, particularly children who were often left to their own devices in the streets. In those days, even people with decent jobs could become destitute in an instant. “The craftsmen are so poor that, from the moment they do not work, they have to be placed in the hospital,” one contemporary observer wrote.

The French Revolution was still a hundred years away, but already there were stirrings that society must change. John Baptist de la Salle recognized the same problems that angered Robespierre and Danton in the 1780s; like them, La Salle would become a revolutionary. Thankfully, however, the effective tool of what we might call the “La Salle Revolution” would not be a guillotine, but the classroom.

John Baptist de La Salle was a reluctant agent of change. His involvement in education was initially only “marginal.” He later admitted that had he known how deeply involved he would become in his work, the trials and sufferings involved, and how it would exhaust him physically, “my courage would have failed me, and I would have dropped the whole project.”

Little by little, however, through the workings of Providence, the La Salle Revolution happened. Here are three changes that it brought into the world:

1. Learning for everyone

La Salle’s involvement in education occurred by chance when he was invited to help open a free school for disadvantaged boys. At first, he did not feel it was his calling, but as more schools needed his help, he felt drawn to the project. La Salle understood that the poor and working-class boys who came to the school needed practical knowledge to help them make their way in the world, but also knowledge of God to become fully human.

It was vital, therefore, that students receive both academic and religious training. In La Salle’s schools, students would learn reading, writing, and arithmetic, but were also required to memorize prayers and take lessons in civility.

La Salle strongly believed that the parents of his students also thirsted for education; he eventually opened Sunday schools to help adults grow in faith, wisdom, and Christian charity. He also opened schools meant to reform delinquent youths and adult prisoners.

Many in the upper classes (including certain French churchmen) felt threatened and strenuously opposed La Salle’s efforts — but his revolution could not be stopped. The idea that every person deserved an education took hold and, in due course, transformed society at large.

2. A community of educators

After becoming involved in his first school, La Salle quickly saw that teaching was a tough and often thankless task. The pay was not good and those who instructed the poor were generally looked down upon. La Salle invited teachers into his home to support them. He helped them understand their work was not just another job, but a noble vocation. La Salle would eventually resign his position as a canon to devote himself to the formation of a community of consecrated laymen to teach in free schools.

Approximately 4,000 De La Salle Christian Brothers are at work in the world today, teaching and administering in educational institutions that reach over a million students.

3. Teaching by example

La Salle instructed his teachers to educate every child in religion that they might know God. Teachers must instill in the young a “horror of vice,” and “help them love prayer.” To be effective, the teachers had to educate through the example of their own lives. Wearing religious attire and acting outwardly holy would not be enough, because “the habit does not make the religious.” Instead, La Salle’s brothers had to truly become “new men,” transformed by love for Christ and the Church into authentic examples of holiness. He instructed his brothers to become “ambassadors of Christ to the young,” the kind of men who would inspire young people to become saints.

This is the ideal that every De La Salle Christian Brother continues to be called to as they educate young people in the Archdiocese of Newark and throughout the world.