Four pioneering French Brothers, led by Bro. Aidant, sailed from Le Havre (France) and arrived about one month later in Montreal (Canada) to launch Lasallian education in North America. Their first school opened in Montreal on December 23 of that year.

[Brothers of the Christian Schools], Ten Decades of Education 1845-1945: The Centenary of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in America (Philadelphia: Campus, 1948), pp. 34 and 125.