I. Charism - La Salle.org

IV. DISCOVERING, LIVING, SHARING THE GIFT OF GOD 55
their society and which they tried to carry out – more or less – was
that of “the religious community”. In a way, the invention of their
way of life and their manner of being in the world, went hand in
hand with the setting up of an in-depth renewal of the procedures
for the instruction and education of the children of the poor.
Our charism was therefore formed in a very specific spiritual and
pastoral context, a context which is, so to speak, its appropriate
“compost”. Nevertheless, when all is said and done, it was lay people,
a rich woman and a man involved in the world of educating the
poor, who caused the young John-Baptist de La Salle to face up to
his responsibilities, thus causing him to discover his vocation. And
that is quite something. The Founder would not forget this when
he celebrated a Mass in the chapel of the Sisters of the Child Jesus
in Reims, on learning of the death of his friend in 1687. Neither
Jeanne Maillefer nor Adrien Nyel knew what would be born of
their initiatives, nor did John-Baptist de La Salle himself, who
would write in the Memoir of the Beginnings:
• I had thought he wrote in a memoir which he composed later on to
inform the Brothers about the means Divine Providence had used to
establish their Institute, “that the care which I took of the schools and
of the teachers would only be external, something which would not
involve me any further than to provide for their subsistence and to see
to it that they carried out their duties with piety and assiduity.” 32
• “It was”, he declared in the memoir mentioned previously, “by these
two events, namely by my meeting Monsieur Nyel and by the proposal
made to me by this woman 33 , that I began to take interest in the
school for boys. Prior to this, I had never given them a thought. The
suggestion, of course, had been made to me before. Several of
Monsieur Rolands´s friends had tried to motivate me to accept, but
32
Blain. The life of John Baptist de La Salle, Book One, p. 77. (CL 7, p. 167).
33
This woman: Madame de Croyères a childless widow, wealthy and pious. She wished to found a
school for boys in her own parish of Saint Jacques: Blain, op. cit., Book One, p.74 . (CL 7, p. 166).