St. Cassian's CENTRE
In the 17th Century France, there was a man named John Baptist De La Salle. He lived in an area where if you wanted to attend school then your parents had to pay for you to go. Most people were unable to afford this so children grew up not being able to read or write. This meant they couldn’t get a job and when they had a family of their own the same situation happened.
John Baptist De La Salle started to teach groups of young people for free and then a group of men helped him and became known as the De La Salle Brothers. The De La Salle Brothers went all over the world teaching young people for free and the Brothers that came to England lived in this house.
The house has been used for many things over the years, it started off as a family home, one of the Prime Ministers family used to live here! (GLADSTONE). Then it was owned by Oxford University, then it was bought by the De La Salle Brothers who used it as a novitiate and juniorate, a school so young man could become brothers themselves.
Eventually there wasn’t a need for the school so one of the brothers Damian Lundy, along with Brother Dominic and Joe had the idea to turn this place into a retreat centre, and so 45 years later, here we area retreat centre open to young people all over our distric!
John Baptist De La Salle started to teach groups of young people for free and then a group of men helped him and became known as the De La Salle Brothers. The De La Salle Brothers went all over the world teaching young people for free and the Brothers that came to England lived in this house.
The house has been used for many things over the years, it started off as a family home, one of the Prime Ministers family used to live here! (GLADSTONE). Then it was owned by Oxford University, then it was bought by the De La Salle Brothers who used it as a novitiate and juniorate, a school so young man could become brothers themselves.
Eventually there wasn’t a need for the school so one of the brothers Damian Lundy, along with Brother Dominic and Joe had the idea to turn this place into a retreat centre, and so 45 years later, here we area retreat centre open to young people all over our distric!
