FRATELLI DELLA VITA COMUNE. — Confraternity founded around 1381 at Deventer (Holland) through the efforts of Fiorenzo Radewijns of Leerdam, master of arts at the University of Prague and disciple of Gerardo Groote. The latter had gathered around himself some young clerics from the Deventer Chapter School as copyists, and Radewijns brought them together in common life, but without vows; they lived from the proceeds of that occupation and devoted themselves to serving God in chastity, obedience, and diligence, with special practices of piety. At his death (1384), Groote recommended that they adopt a rule, advising that of the Canons Regular of S. Agostino. This suggestion was followed by some of the confraternity members; Tomaso da Kempis went to the convent of Eymstyn to study this rule, and between Deventer and Zwolle the monastery of Windesheim was built, in which the new Augustinian Canons Regular congregated, taking their name from II.
The new organization of Windesheim, approved by Bonifacio IX in 1395, rapidly expanded and flourished, especially under the governance of the prior Giovanni Vos from 1391 to 1424, soon numbering 52 male monasteries, along with another 14 female monasteries of Canonesses Regular dependent upon them. As for the confraternity of the F. della V. c., it continued to exist with its own distinct regulations, which also inspired the «Sorelle della V. c.». Both institutions gave the Church excellent copyists and calligraphers, who had the merit of disseminating many sacred and theological works; they must also be credited with the spiritual movement of the devotio moderna, which exerted a notable ascetical-mystical influence in the regions of central Europe. After a century of great prosperity, especially from the 16th century onward, the F. began to decline from their primitive regularity and fervor, and some joined the Protestant «Reformation». Gradually, between the 16th and 19th centuries, the institution disappeared.
#### BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. —
For a long time the members of religious associations devoted to teaching were designated by the name of “brothers.” The Netherlands knew the “Brothers of the Common Life,” founded by Gerardo Groot in the 14th century. In France in the 17th century, the teachers gathered at Rouen around Adriano Nyel described themselves as “brothers,” while retaining full and complete freedom of action, without any canonical bond. The title they chose seemed to them the one most suited to their modest function and their charitable initiatives. When the venerable Nicola Barré, of the Minims, became acquainted with them in Normandy and conceived the idea of a more stable society, bound by vows later recognized by the Church, he called some of his disciples “Brothers of the Child Jesus.”
S. Giovanni Battista de la Salle opened his first popular schools at Reims, with the assistance of Adriano Nyel. This work was the result of a great movement of ideas, of an entire current of initiatives arising in different countries for the Christian education to be imparted preferably to the children of workers and the poor, by men consecrated to the glory of God and the salvation of their neighbor, united in a common life and possessing rigorous didactic training.
The Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools began to exist with its own distinct character between 1679 and 1684. By the latter date it already possessed its essential features in the remote house of Neuve: it had already spread through Champagne and its borders. The Brothers soon organized a novitiate, a boarding school, and a “teachers’ seminary” for rural parishes. They applied the principles to which de la Salle was particularly devoted: lively and complete catechetical instruction, the “simultaneous” method, and the replacement of Latin by the mother tongue in the first lessons in reading.
In 1688 the center of the new institution was transferred to Paris, to the parish of S. Sulpizio, and with this began its new expansion, under the reign of Luigi XIV, from Calais to Marseille.
Struggles, persecutions, and sufferings of every kind came from all sides. Meanwhile, the holy founder secured the future of his spiritual family. In 1717 he brought about the election of Brother Barthélémy as the first superior general and, together with his collaborators, drew up the definitive rule. Two years later, at his death, there were approximately 200 Brothers and about twenty houses. From 1701 Gabriele Drolin was in Rome, sent there by de la Salle; in 1705 he was able to open a small school and, in 1709, obtain the official approval of the Supreme Pontiff.
The 18th century marked the development of the Institute. It obtained from Luigi XV, in September 1724, the “letters patent,” and from Pope Benedetto XIII, on 25 January 1725, the bull In apostolicae dignitatis solio, which placed it among the institutes approved by the Holy See. The Brothers were now bound by the three vows of religious life, with the addition of the vow to teach the poor free of charge. Their numbers increased despite attacks first from the Jansenists and later from the “philosophers.” From 1730 they were in Brittany, Anjou, Orléanais, Franche-Comté, Lorraine, and Dauphiné. They were invited to Estavayer in Switzerland and had a house in Rome. Their mother house was still in Normandy, on the estate of Saint-Yon, which preserved the remains of s. Giovanni Battista de la Salle. Particular circumstances would later oblige the superiors to choose another residence. From 1750 until the Revolution, Melun was the seat of government of Brother Agatone, heir, administrator, and broad-minded educator. Under his generalate the Brothers continued their work not only in elementary classes, but also in the teaching of drawing, commercial bookkeeping, and maritime hydrography. An intellectual elite was trained in the higher “scholasticates” to instruct the young people in the “boarding schools,” institutions created on the model of the Lasallian Saint-Yon, to satisfy the desires of a social class not much inclined toward classical culture, but desirous instead of acquiring a scientific education and learning modern languages.
The events of 1789 brought ruin upon so beautiful a work. After the closure of numerous schools and the dispersal of the teachers who refused to accept the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, the Institute was suppressed in French territory by decree of 18 August 1792. Among de la Salle’s sons were several martyrs: the blessed Salomone, in the Carmelite prisons in Paris; Brother Monitore, on the scaffold at Rennes; and others on the horrible pontoons of Rochefort. Brother Agatone, imprisoned during the Terror, died obscurely at Tours in 1798. Meanwhile, a group had taken refuge under the protection of the Pope. On 7 August 1795, by the brief Inter graves, Pio VI appointed Brother Frumenzio vicar general of the Institute. Thus religious life continued. With the signing of the Concordat of 1801, the survivors immediately resumed their work. By decree of 3 December 1803, Bonaparte restored the Institute. In 1804 Brother Frumenzio answered the appeal of Cardinal Fesch, archbishop of Lyon. Thanks to his protection, the Lasallian Institute was reconstituted, and by decree of 7 March 1808 it was legally recognized. Its principal members, gathered in Chapter, elected Brother Gerbaud superior general on 8 September. The fall of Napoleon, far from hindering it, accelerated its progress. From 1816 the Institute was in the Belgian provinces of the Netherlands; it accepted from the king of France the task of teaching in Île Bourbon and Guyana; it spread through the Papal States, to Bolsena and Spoleto; in 1830 it was in Turin. The generalate of Brother Filippo marked the era of worldwide expansion. At the beginning of his administration the Brothers were already in Canada. From 1840 to 1870 they were in Asia, Africa, North and South America. Continental Europe and England welcomed the presence of these educators. Meanwhile, the Third Republic expelled them from the free schools and from France’s numerous post-school organizations: patronages, study circles, religious unions, and trade unions. The year 1900 brought them, in the social sphere, the praise and honors decreed by the jury of the Universal Exhibition; in the spiritual sphere, the canonization of s. Giovanni Battista de la Salle. A very severe trial followed: on 7 July 1904 the sectarian government suppressed the Institute in France. Further persecutions occurred in Mexico and Hungary.
The latest official statistics show that the Institute has a de facto existence in France. The religious habit is now worn by the Brothers not only in the novitiates and the formation house, but also in the schools, boarding schools, and large technical institutes, such as those of Beauvais and Lyon. In Italy the Institute’s two provinces number 688 Brothers and 305 aspirants. In Belgium and Holland, 1,411 Lasallians educate 36,840 young people in 117 colleges, the most celebrated of which are the art schools known by the name of s. Luca. The Anglo-Irish province numbers 699 Brothers in 57 houses, with 16,000 students. In central Europe—Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Poland—only 600 members of the Institute remain, today threatened no less than yesterday. The Spanish Revolution sacrificed 159 disciples of de la Salle, but 1,459 have resumed their magnificent activity there: 700 novices are preparing for the work, and 26,723 young people attend their schools, most of them free of charge. In Portugal the first house was opened in 1932. In Europe, mention must also be made of the Swiss College of Neuchâtel and the three flourishing schools of the Principality of Monaco.
1711 BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS — BROTHERS OF CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION OF PLOËRMEL 1712
Canada has two French-speaking provinces and one English-speaking province; in all, 1,346 F., 500 young men in the novitiate houses, and 32,000 pupils; 1,592 F. and 500 novices make up the two districts of the United States, where 43,000 young people attend their primary, commercial, agricultural, industrial, secondary, and higher schools. In Mexico, a remarkable prosperity has followed the anxieties and sorrows of the past. The Republics of Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama, and S. Domingo have important houses of the Institute, with 405 religious and 18,000 students in 33 colleges. South America—Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela—has 1,436 F. with 43,000 pupils. In Australia, the Irish Lasallians, established there in 1905, have 18 schools.
This worldwide expansion largely sustains a missionary apostolate carried out in Muslim and pagan countries, such as the Near and Middle East, Africa, China, India, and Japan. It is a peaceful army of 14,500 educators distributed, for the good of souls, across 67 countries; their moral and social influence is exercised over more than 400,000 young people, to whom must be added more than 500,000 former pupils involved in post-school activities. For the pedagogical principles followed by the F. delle s. c., V. GIOVANNI BATTISTA LA SALLE, s.p.