This is a reading of the life of the Founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (AKA De La Salle Christian Brothers) in the light of the first volume of the doctoral thesis of Br. Miguel Campos, FSC, The Itinerary of Saint John Baptist de La Salle. It was originally published by the De La Salle Brothers in the United Kingdom in 1988 and reprinted here with their permission.
Available as a hardback or paperback on Amazon HERE
The saints have always understood, in practice, what it means to be a member of a pilgrim Church. They lived their lives as a journey of faith for which their guide-book was the gospel and their signposts the events and circumstances of their daily existence which indicated God’s will for them and which, therefore, were to be followed unswervingly at whatever cost to self. And particularly striking exemplars of this model among the saints were those who founded religious congregations since, by definition, these brought fellow pilgrims along with them, blazing a trail which subsequent generations of disciples have scriven to follow, and with special concern today in the light of the Council documents.
A few years ago an academic thesis, awarded a Doctorate in Theology “summa cum laude” by the Lateran University of Rome, was partly dedicated to a study of this aspect of a particular founder’s lifr; the author was a Cuban De La Salle Brother exiled from his country, and the founder he wrote about was Saint John Baptist de La Salle. The present book is an attempt to convey to an English-speaking readership something of the wealth of research and insight that make up this part of the thesis. It offers a message of inspiration, in the first place, to the present-day Brothers of the Christian Schools and their colleagues, alumni and friends.But De La Salle’s pilgrimage was, in differing circumstances, that of every founder and foundress – a story of discernment and fidelity without which the congregations they established could never have come into existence and rendered their manifold services to the Church and to the world.
Edwin Bannon is a Yorkshire-born De La Salle Brother, a graduate of the National University of Ireland, who has spent forty years teaching in his Institute’s schools in England. ow retired, he is doing archival work at the central Archives of the Institute in Rome and, in his spare time, serving as a translator for the USA Lasallian Publications Board.
Published: 1988 (Reprinted by the Lasallian Resource Center in 2025)
Authors: Edwin Bannon, FSC
Publisher: De La Salle Provincialate, London, UK.
190 Pages
Available as a hardback or paperback on Amazon HERE
A PDF copy of the book is HERE.
