Maurice-Auguste Hermans, FSC
ABSTRACT
Amid powerful currents of 16th and 17th-century social and religious reform, practices that constitute the “common life” were renegotiated by societies and congregations of religious women and men responding to diverse vocations. Vigorous debate about the spiritual merits and ministerial functions of various forms of community life was a significant influence on the spirituality of John Baptist de La Salle, and this influence is evident in each aspect of community life as lived by the early Christian Brothers. This work is a systematic examination of practical and symbolic shifts in community practices – from dress to vows – that evolved among the early De La Salle Christian Brothers during a significant period of evolution in the common law of the Roman Catholic Church and the consciousness of members within communities of religious women and men.
KEYWORDS
De La Salle; Religious Community Life;
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About the Author
Maurice-Auguste Hermans, FSC
Maurice-Auguste Hermans, FSC, J.C.D. (1911 – 1987) served as the first Director of Lasallian Studies (1956 – 1987), Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Brother Maurice-Auguste is recognized as the architect of the monumental series Cahiers lasalliens, through which has been disseminated the writings of John Baptist de La Salle and much of the twentieth-century scholarship about his life, spirituality, and pedagogy. He also served as Assistant Superior General and Procurator General of the Institute.
ISSN: 2151-2515
© Christian Brothers Conference 2023.