Greetings!
During the month of February, The De La Salle School, along with our global Lasallian family celebrated the feast days of Saint Miguel Febres Cordereo, FSC and Blessed James Miller, FSC. These two Brothers of the Christian Schools were born ninety years apart and were raised in very different parts of the world, yet their devotion to their vocation, the mission of education and their love for those entrusted to their care was the same.
In the early 1990’s the Brothers envisioned a model of schools that responded to the needs of students from diverse and challenging backgrounds, whose educational needs were not being served by their local communities. The desire was to establish a school that would reflect the founders desire to provide a human and Christian education to the poor.
Br. Lawrence Goyette, FSC established the first Miguel model school in Providence Rhode Island. It was developed for middle school grades, so as to foster and build a student’s God-given gifts so they would have the tools to excel in high school and beyond. The model is named for Ecuadorian Brother, Saint Miguel Febres Cordero, FSC. Saint Miguel was the perfect choice to name this new model in his honor. As a Brother he lived his vocation to the fullest, he had a great passion for education and he loved being a teacher. The De La Salle School is a San Miguel Model School.
Brother James Miller, FSC was missioned to Huehuetenango, Guatemala. He is the first De La Salle Christian Brother from the United States to be declared a martyr for the faith and to be Beatified by the Roman Catholic Church. He was born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, ministered to the people of Nicaragua and Guatemala as well as having taught at Cretin High School in St. Paul, Minnesota. Hermano Santiago, as his students called him in Nicaragua and Guatemala, was brutally shot to death by masked gunmen as he was repairing a wall at the De La Salle Indian School in Huehuetenango, Guatemala on 13 February 1982. It is thought that this occurred because the Brothers were relentless in their efforts to keep their students from being conscripted into the military. Brother James was very aware of the oppression of the Guatemalan Indian people and worked to provide training in job skills as well as leadership skills.
Please continue to spread the good news about the Lasallian Catholic education available here at The De La Salle School. We continue to pray for the success of our mission and ask, through our prayers, for these two saintly brothers to watch over our school and those entrusted to our care.
Live Jesus in our Hearts ….. FOREVER!!!
William L. Gault
Executive Director
