THE DISTRICT OF SAIGON
(Renamed "District of Vietnam" after the Proposition of the District Chapter in 1988)

Beginnings: Towards the end of 1865, six French Brothers left Toulon for Indochina. They arrived in Saigon in January 1866 and took over the operation of the College d’Adran, founded in 1861 by priests from the Paris Foreign Missions Society.

The reputation of the Brothers quickly spread beyond Saigon. In response to appeals by the clergy and the people, the Brothers opened schools in Cholon and Mytho in 1867 and in Vinh Long and BacTrang in 1869. For a time, the French authorities supported these developments and provided scholarships for pupils which gave the Brothers financial support. From 1879 onwards, however, France changed its educational policy. In France itself, freedom of teaching in schools run by congregations was restricted and then the schools were forced to close. In Indochina and in other French colonies, the government did not apply these new laws, but it did away with scholarships to pupils in schools run by congregations. The College d’Adran was closed through lack of money and teachers.

In 1873 a certain Fr. Kerlan opened a free school for abandoned children, some of whom were Eurasians. The school was called Taberd. When the College d’Adran closed, parents sent their children to Taberd. The priest could not cope with the influx of students and took steps to bring the Brothers back.

In 1889, nine Brothers set off from Marseilles. The Brothers arrived at Saigon and were met by a cheering crowd. The Taberd school was turned over to the Brothers in 1890. The following year, the student population increased so much that five more Brothers had to be sent, and a free school was opened on the same property. An annex had to be opened at Vung Tau (Cap St. Jacques).

In January 1896 the Brothers of Indochina left the District of India to form the new District of Saigon. In the course of the same year, the Missionary Society gave the Brothers some property at Thu Duc, 12 kilometers from Saigon in order to build a novitiate. In 1897 a second free annex was opened at Taberd.

In 1898 a school for future teachers was opened at Thu Duc, next to the novitiate.

Fr. Armar, a missionary priest who had opened a school for deaf and dumb children, sent the boys to the Brothers. The school, which was at Lai Thieu, was subsequently moved to Gia Dinh and became a technical school where the deaf and mute children were taught carpentry, wood sculpture, and shoe making.

In 1874 two Brothers were sent to Hanoi. They were so successful that the bishop had to rent larger premises in Rue Ferry to serve the increased number of pupils. Later the bishop purchased a large property and built a large school including classrooms, a chapel, and accommodations for the Brothers. The school was opened in 1879.

The District numbered, at that time, 6 houses, 76 Brothers, 17 scholastics and 6 novices.

Without any help from the French authorities, the work of the Brothers developed rapidly.

When the 1975 events took place, the District numbered 300 Brothers and 15 or so novices. The Brothers conducted 23 foundations including primary, secondary and technical schools, boarding schools for Vietnamese and the mountain people (an ethnic minority), a center for blind children and a teacher training college. Catholic Action and youth movements thrived. The "Coeurs Vaillants," Young Christian Students, the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin, Scouts, etc. were among the many student groups.

When the schools were first founded they were free, but gradually became fee-paying. The Brothers’ traditional attachment to free schools was not forgotten, however, and the poor were not neglected.

The Brothers’ schools accepted all pupils without distinction of social class or religion. Although prayer and catechism were included in the curriculum, the religious beliefs of everyone were respected which explains how having a Christian school in a non-Christian country never caused the Brothers any problems.

The Brothers since 1975: After the fall of Saigon in ’75, all twenty-seven establishments of the LaSalle Education System were to be "offered" to the new government of Hanoi.

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LASALLE MOSSARD - THỦ ĐỨC

La Salle Mossard School is located on a knoll, surrounded on the left by the Parish Church of Thu Duc nearby Thu Duc Market, on the right by the Military Camp, by the Pagoda of Village, and in front by the Notre Dame des Missions School.

The property occupies about three hectares of land. It includes three buildings in the form of an H, five fields for basketball, one field for soccer, and one beautiful garden of high kind of redwoods large enough for children from First to Tenth Graders to play cache-cache and enjoy running, even fighting "just for fun." It also includes a swimming pool, 8x25 meters, with pure, limpid and safe water provided by a natural source.

On the right side of LaSalle Mossard School there is another building of three stories overlooks a large area, three fields for basketball, two fields for volleyball and a garden of fruit trees. This was the Junioriate where more than one hundred Juniors per year lived. There the 8th to 9th Graders wished to follow their Brothers’ footsteps for the Education Mission to young people in the future, are taught.

La Salle Mossard School was for boys only, and up to the 10th class.It was planned to open in each consecutive year, the 11th then the 12th classes. If there were not the ‘75 event, LaSalle Mossard School would have developed into LaSalle Mossard High School.

Most of the students attending LaSalle Mossard School were boarders - more than seven hundred of them. Therefore, it is considered the greatest boarding school in the South East region. Although the Junoriate had independent activities with an independent Administration and Professors, the academic documents, such as academic reports and class programs, etc. were under the seal of LaSalle Mossard School; thus the total number of students for the academic year 74-75 was about 1,300 students.

When speaking of the term "boarding school," one thinks of wealthy people of the upper class or children of high ranking government officials. Thus there are two opposite views about LaSalle Mossard School:

1. The rumor that LaSalle wass for rich families or for officials of government: "LaSalle Mossard School is really a good school with a good reputation for the education of young people. It prepared good leaders of the country such as Presidents Ngo Dinh Diem and Nguyen Van Thieu, good leaders of the Church, too, as Bishops Ngo Dinh Thuc, Nguyen Van Hoa, etc..."
2. The rumor that LaSalle was for poor families or even those from the middle class: "Want to enroll into LaSalle Mossard School? - Money talks!" was the prevailing opinion.

Whether the rumor is true or not, I think, and nobody can deny it, that the Lasallian Education System accomplished great things for young people all over the world for more than 300 years. For more than the past 100 years in Vietnam, LaSalle Mossard School was included in this category.