![[Blessed Nicolas Roland]](http://saints.sqpn.com/saintn83.jpg "21kb jpg detail of a painting of Blessed Nicolas Roland, date unknown, artist unknown, Hotel de La Salle, Reims")
Profile
Raised in a pious family. Educated by Jesuits. Canon of Rheims, France while still a seminarian. Priest. Noted preacher. Assigned as parish priest in Rouen, France. Returned to Rheims with the plan to start schools for poor girls; he took a run-down orphanage and turned it into a successful school for orphaned and abandoned girls. Founder of the Soeurs de l’Enfant-Jésus (Sisters of the Infant Jesus) whose first members were teachers at his school; they received formal approval on 9 May 1678. He and the Sisters expanded the work and founded more schools around the city. Friend and mentor of Saint John Baptist la Salle who continued Nicolas’ work by supervising the Sisters, and later founding schools for boys.
Born
- 8 December 1642 in Rheims, Marne, France
- 27 April 1678 in Rheims, Marne, France of natural causes
- interred in the crypt of the Sisters of the Child Jesus in Rheims
- 21 December 1992 by Pope John Paul II (decree of heroic virtue)
- if you have information relevant to the canonization of Blessed Nicolas, contact
Soeurs de l’Enfant Jésus
48 Rue du Barbâtre
51100 Reims, FRANCE
Additional Information
- Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
- Kirken i Norge
- L’Osservatore Romano
- Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
- Wikipedia
MLA Citation
- “Blessed Nicolas Roland“. Saints.SQPN.com. 7 April 2013. Web. 19 June 2013. <>