St. John Baptist de La Salle

St. John Baptist de La Salle was born in 1651 into a wealthy family at Reims, France, and died on 7 April 1719. A priest and canon of comfortable means and refined education, he was drawn, almost against his own inclination, into the work of establishing schools for the sons of the poor and the working classes, who in his day had little access to education, and he came gradually to give up his wealth, his position, and his own plans to devote himself entirely to this mission.

He gathered and formed a community of laymen dedicated to teaching, founding the Brothers of the Christian Schools, and he became a pioneer of modern education, organizing classes by ability, teaching in the language of the people rather than in Latin, and establishing among the first training colleges for teachers. Enduring opposition, poverty, and setbacks with steadfast faith, he laid the foundations of a vast educational work. Canonized in 1900 and declared the patron of teachers, he is honored with a memorial on 7 April.