I. Charism - La Salle.org

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IV. DISCOVERING, LIVING, SHARING THE GIFT OF GOD
Neither Bernard nor Maillefer speak of a letter addressed to John-
Baptist de La Salle, since the family relationship between Madame
Maillefer was really taken to justify the existence of a ‘family’
acquaintance between them. Blain insists that Nyel brought with
him a letter 37 for Monsieur de La Salle. In any case, the duties of
John-Baptist de La Salle with regard to the Sisters of the Child-Jesus
of Reims led to his being kept informed of the moves being made
by his relative. At that time, he had been ordained priest about a
year before the arrival of Nyel; he was the executor of Nicolas
Roland’s will, in charge of the temporal affairs of the Sisters. He had
successfully carried through the steps for having the Community
recognised: letters patent and canonical recognition. He was still a
canon of the cathedral, was still looking after his family (his brothers)
and he was also studying theology.
Adrien Nyel was the bearer of a pedagogical project and an organisational
model to bring schools for the poor into existence: that of
Rouen. The schools were organised and financed by the Bureau for
the Poor, an organisation made up of prominent people who were
mostly lay persons. In the context of the period they were obviously
Catholics who worked closely with the ecclesiastical hierarchy,
but without being directly dependent on it. The teachers were
recruited by this body, which looked after their upkeep and gave
them a job. Bro.Yves Poutet thus comments on the achievements in
Rouen:
1670! The projects of 1657 had finally been brought to fruition for the
boys. Rouen had four schools for its four districts. The teachers chosen
by Bimorel and led by Nyel , and who were living in the Hôpital
Général, went to the schools each work day. Three of them are known:
Hilaire le Maréchal, Le Gaigneur and François Le Vasseur. They were
living in community. They were bachelors but had not taken any vows.
37
See Yves POUTET, op. cit. p. 631, note 37.