The De La Salle Brothers - Philippine District is part of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, the largest congregation of Roman Catholic religious Brothers who are exclusively dedicated to education. The Institute was founded in Reims, France in 1680, with over 75,000 De La Salle Christian Brothers together with lay colleagues established globally 1,500 Catholic, Lasallian educational institutions worldwide in 82 countries.
Background
In the aftermath of the Philippine Revolution against Spain and the Philippine–American War, which immediately followed, the Protestant denomination, first introduced by the new American colonial masters and aided by the newly arrived American teachers, the Thomasites, was gaining a foothold among Filipinos because of the then strong anti-Spanish Friar sentiment existing at that time. Due to the then very small number of Catholic educational institutions in the country, the then American Archbishop of Manila Jeremiah James Harty, himself an alumnus of a De La Salle Christian Brothers school in St. Louis, Missouri, would appeal to the Superior-General of the Christian Brothers in 1905 for the establishment of a De La Salle school in the Philippines. While there was growing pressure for a De La Salle school, Archbishop Harty's request was rejected, because of the Christian Brothers' lack of funds. Nonetheless, Manila Archbishop Harty continued to appeal to Pope Pius X for the much-needed establishment of additional Catholic schools in the country.
History
Arrival in the Philippines
On March 10, 1911, upon instructions from the Vatican to the La Salle Generalate, Brothers Blimond Pierre from France (who would serve as the school's first director), Aloysius Gonzaga, and Augusto Correge, arrived in the Philippines from Europe. Six other De La Salle Christian Brothers arrived between March and June: Brothers Louis, Camillus, B. Joseph, Celba John, Imar William, and Martin. The Christian Brothers came from the United States, Ireland, Luxembourg, and France.
Together, on June 16, 1911, the Christian Brothers opened the first La Salle school in the country. The location is at the former Perez-Samanillo Compound on 652 Calle Nozaleda in Paco, Manila. The school was first attended by 100 students.
Reactions from the locals
The initial perception of Filipinos about the then newly arrived De La Salle Christian Brothers was that they were no different from the Spanish Friars who were previously the sole handlers of Philippine education for almost three hundred years. Over time, the De La Salle Christian Brothers established their religious vocation as being a group of full-time religious educators who have consecrated their lives to God with the mission of providing Christian education to the vulnerable youth, especially the lost, the least, and the last around the world.
In 1921, the Brothers transferred the school from its original site in Paco, Manila to the then-wooded newly constructed Taft Avenue in Malate, Manila because of the increasing school population. During this time, the Christian Brothers' devotion to education would be recognized by the numerous visits of heads of state to De La Salle and by the proclamation of De La Salle College as the Philippine Islands' Premier School for Boys by Dr. Paul Monroe and a commission of American educators, after an eight-month cross-country inspection of existing Philippine schools in the 1930s.
The February 12, 1945 massacre
On February 12, 1945, a Japanese Army officer along with 20 soldiers forcibly made their way into the college, which was then a refuge for 70 people, including 30 women and young girls, 16 European De La Salle Christian Brothers (all the pre-war American De La Salle Christian Brothers had been interned in the Los Baños Concentration Camp) and the college's chaplain-Redemptorist Father Cosgrave CSSR (an Australian), and the adult men of two families. Two days earlier, De La Salle College Director-Brother Egbert Xavier Kelly FSC (an Irishman) was abducted by another group of Japanese soldiers, and was never seen again.
After the Japanese troops herded all the people into the school chapel, they were then subsequently shot, slashed or bayoneted. Those who did not die in the attack were left to bleed to death. The Japanese attempted to rape some of the dying women. The chapel was then set on fire, but it was not destroyed because it was built of marble and concrete. Only 10 people survived, including one De La Salle Brother. Brother Antonius is the name of the surviving Christian Brother.