Certainly it was privileged upbringing growing up in a wealthy, distinguished family.

He was the oldest of 11

children of whom seven survived to adulthood. His devout parents named him after John the Baptist, the herald
of Jesus, a name that providentially gave a fitting indication of the role that he would play in bringing the
Gospel to so many who had little opportunity of hearing or appreciating its power and appeal.

Early on, while it might have been expected that he would follow in his father’s footsteps as a magistrate of the
presidial court, he chose to pursue the priesthood and underwent an official ceremony at the age of ten to
confirm that intention.

When he was 16, his uncle resigned the distinguished position of Canon of the Cathedral Chapter of Reims in
his favor, a title that brought with it both church responsibilities and church benefits. Every day he would now
process into the grand cathedral of Reims in his ermine cope and chant the Divine Offices with his fellow
canons, joining the group in advising the archbishop and undoubtedly happy at his future prospects.

At the age of 19, De La Salle moved to Paris so that he could study at the Sorbonne while residing at the
prestigious Seminary of Saint Sulpice. This seminary had been founded only 25 years earlier in a spirit of
clerical renewal mandated by the Council of Trent a century earlier. Saint Sulpice was notable for a rigorous life
style and was intended to produce priests capable of self sacrifice and self discipline. Its graduates were slated
to hold lofty positions in the Church of France. Among the regular tasks of the seminarians was to teach
catechism to the poor, which De La Salle certainly did do, although there is no indication that he found it
anything other than one of the apostolic duties that was part of being a seminarian.

Within eighteen months, this privileged world of De La Salle’s changed quite dramatically. In the short span of
a year, his mother and then his father passed away. Named as executor of the estate and guardian of the younger
children, John Baptist dutifully left Paris and returned to Reims to assume the role of head of the household.
This 21-year-old seminarian — still technically a minor since the age of majority was 25 — had four brothers
and two sisters to take care of. Surviving documents show that his duties as guardian of his siblings and
administrator of his family estate and properties were handled with meticulous care and administrative acumen.
After things were relatively settled, he was advised to pursue his studies and resume his path to the priesthood.
It might not have been at St. Sulpice, but the vocation was not to be denied. He was ordained a subdeacon in
1672, a deacon in 1676, and he became a priest on April 9, 1678. As for his studies, he received a licentiate in
theology in 1676 and a doctorate in 1680.

Not long after, another wealthy woman in Reims told Nyel that she also would endow a school but only if De
La Salle would ensure that her money would not be squandered or wasted. De La Salle agreed somewhat
reluctantly, since he was quite busy with other affairs. Out of charity and necessity he began to become more
involved with the teachers. Gradually and without really being aware of it, he found himself becoming drawn
into a very different world — the world of the poor. It was a world of disadvantaged students, uncultured
teachers, and parents chronically oppressed by poverty.

Nyel was off to start yet more schools and De La Salle was left holding the bag, as it were. De La Salle knew
that the teachers in Reims were struggling, lacking leadership, purpose, and training, and he found himself
taking increasingly deliberate steps to help this small group of men with their work. In 1680, he invited them to
take their meals in his home, as much to teach them table manners as to inspire and instruct them in their
work. This particular crossing of social boundaries was one that his relatives found difficult to bear. Even De
La Salle himself must have appreciated the contrast: a canon of the Cathedral of Reims who was just now
acquiring his doctorate mixing on a daily basis with barely literate, uncultured men that Nyel had picked up
here and there, and for whom teaching was often at best a temporary vocation.

Yet De La Salle was not one to do things by halves. In 1681, De La Salle realized that he would have to take a
further step — he brought the teachers into his own home to live with him. Now De La Salle’s relatives were
deeply disturbed, his social class was scandalized, and it was thought that he was carrying the Gospel a bit too
far. But De La Salle could not shake the conviction that this was something that God wanted him to
do, something confirmed for him in deep prayer and long reflection.