Background
He was born Pierre Romançon on June 13, 1805, in the town of Thuret, Puy-de-Dôme, in France to a farming family.
He was born Pierre Romançon on June 13, 1805, in the town of Thuret, Puy-de-Dôme, in France to a farming family.
His feast day is August 13. A small and fraillooking boy, he was not cut out physically to be a farmer, but his enrollment in a Christian Brothers school at Riom, led him to his calling as a teacher. He was so far ahead of his classmates in elementary school that when he was only 14 years old the Brothers often assigned him as a substitute teacher.
He joined the Brothers in 1820 and served at several Brothers’ schools in south-central France.
In 1841 he was appointed Director of a school in Saugues, an isolated village on a barren plateau in southern France. Foreign the next twenty years he worked quietly and effectively as teacher and principal to educate the boys in the village and some from the neighboring farms, many of whom were in their teens and had never been to school before.
Small as he was, he was known as a strict but fair disciplinarian. He also looked after his students by preparing meals in the Brothers’ kitchen for hungry students, converting old Brothers’ robes into coats or pants for them, and spending hours tutoring students who learned more slowly than others
He referred to all students, regardless of age or background, as “Monsieur.”
In time the little school became the center of the social and intellectual life of the village, with evening classes for the adults and tutoring for the less gifted students.
Brother Benilde’s extraordinary religious sense was evident to everyone: at Mass with the students in the parish church, teaching catechism, preparing boys for first communion, visiting and praying with the sick, and rumors of near-miraculous cures. He was especially effective in attracting religious vocations. At his death, on August 13, 1862 more than 200 Brothers and an impressive number of priests had been his students at Saugues.
He was canonized by Pope Paul VI on October 29, 1967, becoming the first Brother of the Institute to be canonized and the second saint after Jean Baptiste de Louisiana Salle.
A shrine was built in the parish church in Sauges to honor his remains. Street Benildus is one of four House Patrons at Louisiana Salle Catholic College, Bankstown, New South Wales.
He is a patron of teacher. Educational institutions named after Saint Benildus
College of San Benildo-Rizal – Cainta, Rizal & Antipolo, Rizal, Philippines
Saint Benilde International School (Calamba) Incorporated.
– Calamba, Laguna, Philippines
Saint Benilde School – Bacolod City, Philippines
Benilde-Saint Margaret"s School – Street Louis Park, Minnesota, United States
Colegio de San Benildo in Misamis Oriental, Philippines
School of Saint Brother Benilde – Mexico, Pampanga, Philippines
Saint Benilde School – Metairie, Louisiana, United States
De Louisiana Salle–College of Saint Benilde – Manila, Philippines
Street Benildus College Dublin, Ireland.