Salle, John Baptist De La

Salle, John Baptist De La founder of the order of Christian Brothers, was born at Rheims, France, April 30, 1651. At the age of seventeen he was made canon of the Cathedral of his native city, and after studying some time at the Sulpician Seminary in Paris, he took the degree of doctor of divinity, and was ordained priest in 1678. He died in Rouen, April 9, 1719. The order which he established is devoted to teaching, especially among the poorer classes. He introduced the mutual simultaneous method of instruction, and also composed a treatise on school government. The order was approved by Benedict XIII, and has thousands of schools, and first-class colleges at Passy, near Paris, at Marseilles, Manhattanville, N.Y., St. Louis, Baltimore, etc. Baptist de la Salle was declared venerable by Gregory XVI, May 8, 1840, and beatified by Pius IX in 1873. See (N.Y.) Cath. Almanac, 1873, page 88.