John Baptist de la Salle was born at Rheims,
France on April 30th. He was the eldest of ten
children in a noble family. He studied in
Paris and was ordained in 1678. He was known for his work with the poor. He died at St. Yon, Rouen, on April 7th. He was canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1900.
John was very involved in education. He founded the Institute of the Brothers of the
Christian Schools (approved in 1725) and established teacher colleges (Rheims in 1687,
Paris in 1699, and
Saint-Denis in 1709). He was one of the first to emphasize classroom teaching over individual instruction. He also began teaching in the vernacular instead of in Latin. His
schools were formed all over Italy. In 1705, he established a reform school for boys at Dijon.
John was named patron of teachers by Pope Pius XII in 1950. His
feast day is April 7th.
No comments:
Post a Comment