When, on 30 May last year, I received the sad news that Brother Louis had passed away the previous day, I sat down and thought of how I could spool back my life to all the instances I lived with him, and a verse from Longfellow’s Psalm of Life sprang to mind:

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time.

This gives a sincere expression of the way I feel about the man who permitted many of us (students, colleagues and friends) to be a part of his elaborate and rich landscape of life.

Brother Louis was a true De La Salle Brother, having lived all his life as a dedicated follower of St John Baptist De La Salle. His roots – deeply anchored in Jesus Christ – helped him persevere throughout the long and difficult years he led the Maltese De La Salle Province. His footprints resist an extraordinary definition and compel me to admit of a more psychedelic mélange of impressions that reverberate from the vivid tapestry of his life and the legacy he has left for generations to remember. This wealthy tapestry of his life was carefully woven by a rainbow of fine threads of his many wonderful and magnificent attributes.

This gentleman’s footprint was carefully formed by his quiet and persistent commitment, his captivating humility, extraordinary honesty, selflessness, love for educating children, enviable integrity and ability to make friends and build everlasting relationships.

Towards the end of his life, Brother Louis bore his sickness with admirable fortitude, determined to be of little trouble to his colleagues, and died in the arms of Mary, Mother of God on the eve of her Visitation. He faded away in the same way as he lived, as a serene giant, a remarkable man who found all the Saints waiting to embrace him and who heard from heaven’s gate the words we all dream of hearing when we too have run our course: “Well done, my good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord”. Brother Louis, a De La Salle Brother, a man for others, a great teacher, a man of justice, a maker of peace, a servant of God – was a great man. On his first anniversary his footsteps are still heard and hopefully will continue to be heard for ever. Pray for us, Brother Louis.

Anton Callus (Old Stelmarian)

MOSTA