La Salle Network

To be more effective, he abandoned his family home and moved in with the teachers, renounced his canonry and his wealth, and formed the community that we know today as the Brothers of the Christian Schools.

His Enterprise met opposition from the ecclesiastical authorities who resisted the creation of a new form of religious life, a community of consecrated laymen to conduct schools “together and by association.” The educational establishment of the time resented his innovative methods and his insistence on gratuity for all, regardless of whether parents could afford to pay.  

Nevertheless, De La Salle and his Brothers succeeded in creating a network of quality schools, that featured instruction in the vernacular, students grouped according to ability and achievement, religious instruction with secular subjects, prepared by teachers with a sense of vocation and mission, and the involvement of parents. Furthermore, De La Salle innovated in programs for training lay teachers, Sunday courses for working young men, and one of the first institutions for the care of “delinquents.”  

Worn out by austerities and exhausting labors, he died at Saint Yon, near Rouen, in 1719, only weeks before his sixty-eight birthday.

Joh Baptist de La Salle was pioneer in founding training colleges for teachers, reform schools for delinquents, technical schools, secondary schools for modern languages, art, and science. His work quickly spread through France and, after his death, continued to spread across the globe.

In 1900, John Baptist de La Salle was declared a Saint. In 1950, because of his life and inspirational writings, he was made Patron Saint of all those who work in the field of education.