General of De La Salle Order dies

THE Most Honourable Bro. Athanase-Emile, Superior General of the Brothers of the Christian. Schools, died last week at "Casa de La Salle," on the Via Aurelia, Rome.
Louis Riemanl—who took the name Bro. Athanase-Emile in religion—was born in Lorraine 72 years ago. He filled several important positions in his order, and in 1928 was elected an Assistant General.
At the General Chapter of 1946 he was elected Superior General, thus becoming the 20th successor to St. John Baptist de La Salle.
The immensity of the task which faced him as General can he gathered from the vast territory covered by the order, which extends to 77 different countries with a membership of 14,747 professed religious and 5.450 aspirants of 62 different nationalities, teaching 500,000 boys.
Bro. Athanase spoke several languages and during his six years of office he travelled extensively in the U.S.A., Canada, Spain, Italy, France and Belgium.
In 1950 he visited Great Britain to lay the foundation stone of the De La Salle College extension in Salford.
The outstanding events of his generalate were the beatification of Bro. Benildus in 1948 and the tercentenary celebrations of the birth of St. John Baptist de La Salle in 1951, when the Holy Father proclaimed the saint Patron of all teachers.