BIOGRAPHY


BROTHER VICTORINO DE LA SALLE
Augustin Arnaud 1885-1966

Brother Victorino De La Salle was born in Onzilhon (France) in September 7th , 1885 and he was christened Agustín Arnaud.

His first studies were in the french Primary School of his town and later he continued them in a nearby Primary School that belonged to De La Salle Brothers, where he made his first Holy Communion. In 1901 he joined Brother´s Novitiate, starting his religious education. It was there where he received his new name that came with him in his religious life: Nymphas Victorin. With nineteen years old he got the Primary Teacher certificate and he started his teaching career.

In 1904 anticlerical laws announced in France (Combes´ laws) precipitated his transfer to Canada. He volunteered to travel to Cuba, where he joined De La Salle Brothers, who created a foundation for the first time in 1905. Brother Victorino De La Salle took his solemn vows in 1913.

Among all Brother Victorino De La Salle´s works appear the creation, in 1928, of the Cuban Young Catholics Federation, the more important lay organization in Cuba until the end of the activities by the state authorities in 1961. Colloquially known as “the federated”, these young cuban people who had been more than twenty-five thousand, were an important support for the cuban Episcopate´s evangelization work. A considerable number of religious vocations – A lot of De La Salle Brothers between them – developed from them.

In 1961 the De La Salle Brothers´ exodus took place in Cuba, where they had ten Primary and Secondary schools and one Catholic Universiy, with six thousand of registrations, between students and pupils. After a route around Canada, New York and Miami, Brother Victorino De La Salle settled in Puerto Rico, where he celebrated, in 1963, the 50th anniversary of his perpetual profession.

After a physical decline, Brother Victorino De La Salle died in April 16th, 1996 in the Puerto Rican city of Bayamón, where nowadays there is his tomb in the De La Salle Brothers´ mausoleum located in Porta Coely Cementery.

Brother Victorino De La Salle´s permanent quality of help everyone and his fruitful preaching between Cuban young people motivated, in March 1999, the Vatican authorized the Archdiocese of San Juan, Puerto Rico to start the beatification process. The driving of the cause is Brother Rodolfo Meoli who, from the headquarters of the Christian Schools Brothers in Rome, follows the course of the events.