Tercentenary of the Bull of Approbation of the Institute and the Year of the Jubilee

On 26 January 2025, it will be 300 years since Pope Benedict XIII, in 1725, granted the Bull of Approbation to the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. In this way, the Catholic Church approved the official recognition to the nascent Institute.

“The first edition of this Bull was issued in a Holy Year and it is our turn to celebrate it in a Holy Year,” says Brother Santiago Rodríguez Mancini, Director of the Generalate in Rome, highlighting the coincidence of the Tercentenary.

God’s presence in our history

In this sense, the Lasallian religious continues, “the Holy Year celebrates the incarnation of the Word. And that is the key to reading this event: to see the approbation of the Institute as one more effect of the incarnation of God in history“.

In addition to the celebration of the Tercentenary of the Letters Patent and the Bull of Approbation of the Institute, this year the Lasallian Family celebrates the 75th anniversary of the declaration of St. John Baptist de La Salle as Universal Patron of Teachers by Pope Pius XII. This landmark event in the life of the Institute took place on 15 May 1950.

“That is why the 46th General Chapter decided that this year should be declared the Year of Lasallian Spirituality,” explains Brother Santiago, “and it is also the Year of Catechesis, a proposal made by the Young Brothers at their last International Assembly.

Catechesis and Spirituality

When referring to the pairing of catechesis-spirituality, Brother Santiago highlights that “Catechesis and Spirituality are two sides of the same coin, because catechesis manifests the interior life of the educators, and the interior life of the educators nourishes that catechesis”.

Pope Francis, too, in the Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025, has stated that this year is also an invitation to return to the “oases of spirituality and places of rest on the pilgrimage of faith, where we can drink from the wellsprings of hope“.

For Brother Santiago Rodríguez Mancini, who is also Director of the Office of Lasallian Heritage and Research, “when we speak of spirituality we always refer first of all to an experience, to the interior life of each of the educators”, and “the experience is particular, but it is also communal, because Lasallian spirituality is a spirituality of a community of educators, who look with faith at the service they carry out and discover what their place is in God’s plan”.

  • On the occasion of the Tercentenary of the Letters Patent and the Bull of Approbation of the Institute, a virtual exhibition has been set up on LaSalle.Org which includes documents, photographs and historical images. The exhibition can be accessed HERE.
  • The Institute has launched the “Being an Educator Today” Contest on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the Proclamation of St. John Baptist de La Salle as Universal Patron of Teachers. HERE you can find all the information to participate.
  • A microsite with resources for living the Year of Lasallian Spirituality, including articles, publications, multimedia materials and weekly reflections on the writings of the Founder, will soon be available on LaSalle.Org. Visit https://www.lasalle.org/en/and follow us on social media.