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St. John Baptist de la Salle (1651-1719) is the founder of the Christian Brothers. He and his associates focused upon schools for poor boys, beginning at Paris, then spreading world-wide. De la Salle was also an educational reformer. He was destined for the Church at an early age and ordained as a priest in 1678. Historian Daniel Attwater writes, "he gave up a life of dignified ease to devote himself to the education of the sons of the poor." He resigned a canonry at Reims and a private fortune to train a group of young men to teach the poor. Early on he decided that his teachers would be brothers and not priests. He set up his first "free school" in Paris in 1688, created a new school of English Catholics in the entourage of the exiled James II of England, then opened a similar school in Rome. His success was opposed by other schoolmasters who objected to education for the poor other than manual type of training. In order to expand his organization, he set up teacher training novitiates (Reims 1686). Parish priests sent young men from their villages to these schools who then returned home to be educators in parishes. His schools taught in the vernacular rather than Latin. The schools contained reformatories for those boys who had run into social or legal difficulties. The schools provided for religious instruction on Sundays. Technical education for future artisans was a key element in de la Salle's program, as well as what we might today term "elementary education." The Christian Brothers organization suffered from internal conflict from time to time as well as opposition from outside his organization, especially as his success advanced. As an education reformer, The Catholic Encyclopedia states, "He embraced all classes, all conditions of society by making the free schools popular, he grasped the growing needs of society in his own day and for all times. No phase of the educational problem escaped his penetrating vision." His methods included "Simultaneous Method," by which students of equal ability were placed in the same group, regardless of age, a process that became a hallmark of the Christian Brothers. John Baptist de la Salle was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on 19 February 1888 and canonized by him on 24 May 1900. His feast day is April 7, the date he died. He was proclaimed by Pope Pius XII as patron saint of Catholic educators in 1950. The €1,15 stamp celebrating St. John Baptist de la Salle was designed by Chiara Principe and was printed in sheets of ten. de la Salle appears on the stamp with two students. Technical Details: Scott Catalogue - 1718 - 1718 Date Issued - 31 May 2019 Face Value - €1,15 Perforations - 13.25 x 13.75 Printing Process - Offset Printer - Joh. Enschde' (Holland) Max Printed - 150,000 |
| (Source - Vatican Notes: Volume: 67 Issue: 381 Page: 4-7) |
