JOHN BAPTIST de la SALLE 1651-1719 Feast: April 7 This saint is the patron of teachers, his great achievement having been to provide a system of education for the common people at a time when the poor were grossly neglected; not mercy by founding charity schools, a cling which had been attempted countless times before only to end in repeated failure, but by creating a body of trained teachers, and thus setting them on the only possible basis which guaranteed success. It was not by inclination, but solely by chance chat he was led to take up this work....