The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-06-07
JOHN BAPTIST DE IA SALE.

The golden jubilee celebration of
La Sale College, Philadelphia, occa-
stoned much thought regarding the
nature of true education as illustrat-
ed in the schools of the Christian
Brothers founded by John Baptist de
la Sale, Mgr. McDevitt, in his SER
mon on that occasion, gave the fol-
lowing outline of La Sales great
work:
The seventeenth century has been
denominated the age of Louis XIV.
The distinction thus accorded to the
name of the Grand Monarch is be-
slowed because of the pre-eminence
which, under Louis rule, France at
tanned in art, in literature, in science
and in war Whilst an inspiring story
might be told of that golden age, a
truly adequate history would unfold
not only the glory but the degrade
ton also of a reign during which
France dominated Europe for three
quarters of a century. Not less real
than the external splendors and
mighty conquests were the deep
misery and widespread ignorance.
Thoughtful men, lovers of God and
their fellow-men, unaffected and I'M
deceived by the dazzling magniicence
of the great king, saw and bewailed
the wretched and shocking conditions
that prevailed in their native land.
Among those whose hearts went out
to the multitude was young priest,
born at Rheims in 1851 and ordained
to the priesthood in 1878. This apos-
tie by name John Baptist de la Sale,
determined at least to try to save and
elevate the masses of the people who
were dragged down by ignorance, vice
and immortality Endowed with rare
gifts of mind and heart, John Baptist
de la Sale saw with the vision of a
prophet that the remedy for the evils
of his age was an education in which
religion and morality as we'll as
knowledge should be made vital fac
tors of the daily life of the children
of the nation When he turned to
make his lofty purpose practical, he
discovered that the means of educa-
ton were not possessed by the great
masses of the children of the country
and that the agencies which were in
tended to bring truth and knowledge
to the people were inadequate and in
efficient. Moreover, he beheld in the
work of popular education, such as it
was two fundamental weaknesses:
1. The teachers were not wholly de-
voted to their calling.
2. They we're not properly trained
to discharge their high responsibility,
fective in moral character as well as
in intelligent equipment.
An Epoch in the History of Popular
Instruction.
Despite the almost utter hopeless
ness of the lamentable conditions
which confronted him. John Baptist
de la Sale, like all great men who
have left their impress upon mankind,
did not waver in his resolution. He
wasted no time in bewailing and de-
nouncing existing facts. Convinced
that education was the truly efica-
cious weapon to be used in his cru
SADIE against ignorance and persuaded
that education was not less the right
of the many than of the favored few,
he inaugurated a movement which
was destined to mark an epoch in the
history of popular instruction. Emil
nently practical and constructive in
all his undertakings he concentrated
his efforts upon the sources of the
- he IF
day suffered He based his reforma-
ton upon the vital truth that the
teacher is the soul of every school and
that the teacher is never a potent
force in the development of child
unless he is wholly consecrated to his
work and is rightly trained in its
methods and practices. His apprecia-
ton of these truths was neither a
passing nor an academic conviction
He determined therefore, to organize
a body of laymen whose lives, to the
exclusion of any other occupation,
should be given to the cause of edu-
cation, and, furthermore, to establish
an institute through which these men
might receive a special training fol-
their high and noble calling.
Achieved Marvellous Success.
To-day it seems to us simple and
obvious that those who teach should
be pledged unreservedly to their voca
ton, and that they should be trained
to discharge its obligations. But these
evident truths we're not so fully rec
ognized two centuries ago, when Johr
Baptist de la Sale proclaimed his pur