The La Salle family was one of jurists. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle was born in Reims in 1651. He was ordained a priest in 1678 and obtained a canonry. Interested in the lower social classes, Canon Roland drew his attention to children and the need for better education and instruction.
He founded the first free school for boys in Reims. He resigned from his canonry, provided housing in his own home for a few poor boys, and established the Congregation of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Despite many difficulties, the congregation grew; by the time of the founder’s death, it had about two hundred members spread across twenty-two schools, plus two seminaries for teacher training. It is the most significant lay religious congregation dedicated to education and teaching.
The strongest opposition the saint faced in developing his work came from his new and revolutionary teaching methods. These methods prescribed rational pedagogy, eliminating useless traditional elements and adopting the mother tongue instead of Latin.
He died in Reims on April 7, 1719. Canonized in 1900, he was added to the Roman liturgical calendar in 1904, with his feast day assigned to May 15. Faithful to the preference for the date of death, the current calendar celebrates his memory today.
