member of either of two separate but similar congregations of Roman Catholic laymen devoted to teaching youth.

The Institute of the Brothers of Christian Schools (F.S.C.) was founded by St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle at Reims, France, in 1684 for the education of boys, especially of poor families; the congregation is now established on all continents. Besides teaching in elementary, secondary, and teacher-training schools, the brothers administer and staff colleges; agricultural schools; welfare or corrective schools; technical, trade, and commercial schools; and houses of retreat.

The Congregation of the Brothers of the Christian Schools of Ireland (C.F.C.) was founded in 1802 in Waterford, Ire., by Edmund Ignatius Rice (Rice, Edmund Ignatius), a merchant of that city. Rice established the order to serve the needs of poor Catholic boys in his native land, where the English laws of the period prohibiting Catholic schools had reduced great numbers of Catholics to poverty and ignorance. The congregation spread to distant countries largely as a result of Irish-born bishops seeking help in educating the youth of their dioceses. The brothers also conduct orphanages and institutions for the blind and deaf.