Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University / Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, who was to effect great progress in the elementary education for poor boys, was born at Reims, France, on April 30, 1651. Throughout his early years he displayed extraordinary piety and finally, in 1678, was ordained a priest. From boyhood until his ordination, la Salle had hoped and expected to live a quiet and scholarly life, filled with meditation and prayer. But the untimely death of his parents, which necessitated his return to Reims from Paris (1672), was to reveal quite a different role for him to play in life. La Salle had returned home to assume the guardianship of his brothers and sisters. As his spiritual director, he chose Father Nicolas Roland, a young man greatly devoted to the education of an orphanage of girls. However, the young priest soon died, and la Salle unwillingly devoted himself to directing the teachers of the orphanage and obtaining legal recognition of the teachers as a group. [TRUNCATED]