The Memorandum on the Habit

Maurice-Auguste Hermans, FSC, J.C.D.

ABSTRACT

Participants in formation cohorts throughout the Lasallian family study and analyze original works essential to a shared understanding of Lasallian heritage. Of unique value are a select set of documents that record intervening interpretations of the original works. In this essay, the author describes the history of one original work – the Memorandum on the Habit. Beginning with the circumstances in which the document was written and acknowledging its limitations, the author helps contemporary readers understand the significance of a habit in the context of the economic, political, religious and social movements of seventeenth-century France. Along the way, the author provides a content-specific overview of the Memorandum, and of the essential characteristics of the community of teachers in which the habit evolved and was worn to symbolize individual and shared commitment to the mission of providing a human and Christian education to the children of artisans and the poor.

KEYWORDS

Lasallian heritage; De La Salle Christian Brothers;

FULL TEXT

The Memorandum on the Habit