Benildes

Pierre Romançon, known in religion as Brother Bénilde and in various languages as Benilde, Benildus, Benildo, or Benildes, was born on 14 June 1805 in the village of Thuret in the Puy-de-Dôme, in the Auvergne region of central France. He belonged to a modest farming family. Small in stature and of delicate health from childhood, he showed early signs of piety and a vocation to teaching in a religious congregation. At about the age of fourteen he entered the novitiate of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools (the De La Salle Brothers) at Clermont-Ferrand. That institute, founded in the late seventeenth century by Saint John Baptist de La Salle, was dedicated to free Christian education for poor and working-class boys. Romançon received the religious habit and the name Bénilde and, after formation, was assigned to classroom work.

His early years in religion were spent teaching in several communities in southern France. Although he had not received a lengthy academic education, he proved a capable and patient elementary teacher, able to handle large and sometimes unruly classes. In 1841 he was sent to the Brothers’ school at Saugues in the mountainous Haute-Loire, in the Velay. He remained there for the rest of his life, roughly two decades, and became the principal figure of the small Lasallian community and of the local parish school. Under his care the school expanded in numbers and standing. He was remembered for very early rising and prolonged prayer, for firm but paternal discipline, and for personal concern for poorer pupils and for boys who had fallen into idle or disorderly habits. He also promoted evening instruction and catechesis for adults and for those who had left school.

During his years at Saugues, Brother Bénilde gained a regional reputation for holiness. People of the Velay and Auvergne attributed cures and other favors to his intercession even while he was alive. He suffered chronically from rheumatism and other ailments yet continued teaching and the supervision of the house. He died at Saugues on 13 August 1862. Devotion to him spread afterward among the Brothers of the Christian Schools and among the local population. His remains were kept at Saugues, where a chapel associated with the former school became a place of pilgrimage.

The cause of beatification was introduced in the twentieth century. Pope Pius XII beatified him on 4 April 1948. Pope Paul VI canonized him on 29 October 1967, the first member of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools after the founder himself to be enrolled among the saints. His liturgical memorial is kept on 13 August. In Lasallian schools he is recalled as a model of the teaching brother of ordinary background who sanctified the daily labor of the classroom rather than any public office or spectacular apostolate.