A collection of early documents from the time of the initial development of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. These documents were the building blocks for the organization and guiding principles that have led to its growth and ongoing vitality.
This book brings together early documents that present the thought and organization of John Baptist de La Salle, with the help of the original Brothers, and that led to the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Included is the Rule of 1705, the Rule of 1718, Memorandum on the Habit, Rules I Have Imposed on Myself, Heroic Vow, Formula of Vows, Testament, and Rule of the Brother Director of a House of the Institute.
From the Introduction: “With these texts as witness to the relationship between the new and the old, the Founder’s time and the new millenium, the charism that brought the Institute into being and the institutionalized structures that have enabled it to survive, it is hoped that this present volume, so able and carefully prepared by Br. Augustine Loes, will motivate the Brothers to find in the Founder’s Rule a new means to appreciate the Rule now in force and to discover in the comparative study a new incentive to make the Rule a vital force in the life of each Brother and of the Institute” (Luke Salm, FSC)
(2002; 260 pp.)
Translated and edited by Augustine Loes, FSC, and Ronald Isetti.
Volume 7 of Lasallian Sources: The Complete Works of John Baptist de La Salle, 2002.
Publisher: Christian Brothers Conference – Lasallian Region of North America
