Blessed’s Biography

Blessed Nicolas Roland was born on December 8, 1642, in Reims, France. He was the eldest son of the merchant Jean-Baptiste Roland and his wife Nicole Beuvelet. He was baptized without a ceremony because of the grandmother’s opposition to the name of Nicholas. His father became a widower and married again with Maria Favart. They had five children, but the first four died young, and only little Adrienne grew up.

Roland parents sent him to the Jesuits for schooling. He did excellently at school, and family relations would have made it easy for him to establish himself in the business world but became an 18-year-old to begin his ministry.

Roland Education

He studied philosophy and theology in Paris. There he got to meet leading religious personalities, such as Jean-Jacques Olier, the founder of Saint-Sulpice and the initiator of the French mission abroad. He completed her studies with a Ph.D. in Theology.

In 665, even before he became a deacon convict, he received a canyon estate at the Cathedral of Reims with rich income. He was a talented preacher. Many believers did not like his style of elegant, so he created free schools for girls.

In 1682, Roland Barre founded the Congregation Sisters of the Child of Jesus in Rouen to facilitate the election of poor girls and young women by giving them education. Several schools opened in Paris. 

In Reims, Roland was given the responsibility of a poorly run home for orphans, and he gradually turned it into a real school. Next Roland thought of, were the boys, but that task entrusted him to his disciple, Saint John the Baptist de la Salle, whom he met in 1672. This work would only flourish after Roland was gone. 

Roland Death

On April 19, 1678, he had to stay in bed due to a severe headache and asked his friend (Saint John Baptist La Salle) to work for the “Sisters of the Child of Jesus”. He left the responsibilities to him. On the 27th, he peacefully died at Reims and buried in the sisters’ chapel on the 29th.