Rouen, Church of St. Sever

It was in this church that De La Salle was first buried after his death on April 7, 1719.

De La Salle’s original tombstone is on the wall with Latin text.

Once called “the ugliest building in Rouen,” the present St. Sever Church dates from 1860. De La Salle would have known the previous church that was built on this location. Although not an ancient church, it has the oldest Roman crypt in Rouen dating from the 5th century. When the relics were transferred to St. Yon in 1734, a new tombstone was made for St. Yon with a French translation of the original Latin text.

The “new” tombstone was broken when the Founder’s relics were scattered in the French Revolution, and a part of the French tombstone is now in the side chapel of the Pensionnat Jean-Baptiste de La Salle.

A plaque in St. Sever recalls:

“John Baptist De La Salle born in Reims, 30th April 1651, priest, founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, who created and established gratuitous popular schools in 23 towns of France, including Darnetal, and five schools in Rouen. He resided at the manor of St. Yon (the present Ecole Normale) from 1705 to 1709 and from 1715 to 1719. He died there on Good Friday, April 7th, 1719. From 1734-1835 his remains were in the chapel of St. Yon, Rue St. Julien (which had been constructed by the Brothers and their pupils during the years 1728-1734). This memorial was erected in the year of the Tercentenary of the birth of St J.B. de La Salle, 1951.”

In 1925, the parish priest of St. Sever erected a chapel to De La Salle in his church, in reparation for the troubles De La Salle had in that parish.

Two 1715 paintings from the Brothers’ chapel of St. Yon are in the chapels of St. Joan of Arc and St. John Baptist de La Salle. This Founder’s chapel dates from 1925 thanks to Fr. Farcy, priest of the parish and author of a history of the House of St. Yon. His great devotion to De La Salle came from his father, who was a teacher trained by the Brothers in the Rouen teachers’ college. In the chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, the left aisle holds an altar that came from the Brothers’ chapel of St Yon.

The tomb of St. Mellon of Cardiff, a bishop in the middle of the 3rd century, is believed to be here.

In 1860, the St. Sever known to De La Salle was replaced by the present church which stands perpendicular to the location of the original church.

In 1906, De La Salle’s relics were transferred from Rouen to the then Mother House at Lembecq-Les-Hal, Belgium, and then in 1937 to the new Motherhouse in Via Aurelia, Rome.