Founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, Patron Saint of Christian Educators.

John Baptist De La Salle lived in a reality very different from our own. He was the first son of wealthy parents living in France over 300 years ago. Born at Reims, John Baptist de La Salle received the tonsure at age eleven and was named Canon of the Reims Cathedral at sixteen.

After his parents died, he had to assume the administration of family affairs, nevertheless, he completed his theological studies and was ordained a priest on April 9, 1678. Two years later, he received a doctorate degree in theology. During that period of his life, he tried to commit to a group of barely literate young men in order to establish schools for poor children.