The history of the Christian Brothers began in seventeenth-century
France, with a young priest named John Baptist de La Salle.
Appalled by the poverty and ignorance of his countrymen,
de La Salle renounced a substantial inheritance and instead
dedicated his life to opening schools for the young boys
of poor families. To ensure a self-perpetuating organization
of teachers, and to gain their complete commitment, he created
a religious society dedicated to educating the poor. Members
took vows of poverty and celibacy, lived in communities,
and dressed in simple black habits. However, they remained
fully laymen and called themselves "Brothers."
De La Salle (who was made Saint de La Salle in 1900) became a pioneer in educational reform. He was one of the first to use the "simultaneous method" -- teaching the same subject to a whole group of students -- in a society where education was limited to the individual tutoring of wealthy children. De La Salle was also among the first to implement some other, then-revolutionary ideas: the division of students into grade levels, the establishment of teacher training schools, and the use of the vernacular instead of Latin in the classroom. He was likewise a leader in the movement away from classical training, toward a more practical program offering commercial, civic, and scientific courses.
De La Salle's ideas caught on: at its peak in the middle of the twentieth century, the order consisted of about 20,000 Brothers teaching nearly 400,000 students around the world. Today, with more than 7,000 Brothers worldwide, including 1,000 in the United States, the Christian Brothers remains the largest lay religious institute of teaching Brothers in the Catholic church.
The Christian Brothers in Memphis
In 1871, when the great Chicago fire closed down that city's
Christian Brothers schools, the Brothers came to Memphis.
Here, at 612 Adams (in what is now Victorian Village), they
opened a combined high school and college, operating through
the yellow fever epidemics, wars and depressions. CBC functioned
as a combined elementary school, high school and college
until 1915. The first bachelor degrees were awarded in 1875
and the first master degrees in 1877. Because most of the
students had enlisted in World War I, collegiate courses
were suspended in 1915. The last of the elementary classes
were dropped in 1922. From 1922 to 1940, the institution,
although still popularly called CBC, operated as a high
school only.
In 1940 the Brothers moved their facilities to CBU's present location at 650 East Parkway South, and the college department was revived shortly after World War II. From there, the school experienced so much growth that in 1965 the high school moved to its own campus at the present location at 5900 Walnut Grove Road. In 1970 the university opened its doors to women. For more than 125 years, more than 500 Brothers have served at CBC/CBU/CBHS.
