Do you know Blessed Nicolas Barré?

Today, we celebrate Nicolas Barré, promoter of a major popular education movement serving children from disadvantaged backgrounds and the poorest neighbourhoods of Paris and Rouen, the cities where he lived.

He saw children as true partners in the educational relationship: while it is necessary to impose rules, it is even more important to explain and listen carefully... This was a particularly modern vision in the context of the time, based on a few simple but rich and innovative principles. Each child must be ‘raised according to their genius’, with respect for their originality. To educate is to respond to a vocation, which is to prepare for life but also to ‘form and bring forth Jesus Christ in souls’.

Nicolas Barré trained the teachers of the Ecoles Charitables (Charitable Schools) for a true ‘educational ministry’, and they were immediately called upon in many dioceses throughout France. The small group that started it all gave rise to two religious institutes with an international dimension: the Infant Jesus Sisters-Providence of Rouen and the Infant Jesus Sisters-Nicolas Barré, which have been united in a federation since 1970.

Today, schools, educational centres, parishes and development projects bearing the name of Nicolas Barré can be found in eighteen countries across four continents.

« Different species of trees produce different fruits. One should not look for cherries on a plum tree. The same is true of souls. Each must bear the fruit of its own kind, which is that of its grace and appeal. »

Some key dates:

• 1621: born in Amiens to wealthy merchant parents

• 1640: enters the Minim Convent in Paris

• 1645: ordained as a priest

• 1669: proposed to young women that they form a community without religious vows, the ‘Maîtresses des Ecoles Charitables du Saint Enfant Jésus’ (Teachers of the Charitable Schools of the Holy Infant Jesus), dedicated to the education of poor children.

• 1675: the Duchess of Guise asked him to continue in Paris the work he had begun in Rouen. He trained catechists and teachers for popular schools, which multiplied in the capital and then in the provinces.

• 1686: he died in Paris

• 1999: he was beatified in Rome. His liturgical feast day is 21 October.

  
  

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