De La Salle Brothers Philippine District

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. 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. 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.