He devoted himself wholly to what was the great work of his life, the Institute of the Brothers of Christian Instruction. He had established it in 1817 to supply the benefits of Christian teaching in country districts too poor to secure the services of the Brothers of the Christian Schools of St. Jean Baptiste de la Salle, who were not allowed to work singly. When he was still vicar general of Saint-Brieuc, he would seek in the fields and assemble in his own home young peasants, whom he himself instructed in the ways of piety and to whom he imparted elementary knowledge.

From these gatherings grew his congregation, with which the members of a similar institution established by M. Gabriel Deshayes, Vicar-General of Vannes, soon associated themselves. In 1820 he had about 50 disciples; in 1829 he had 133; over 260 in 1831; 650 about 1837. When he died, 800 were scattered throughout Brittany, Gascony, in the colonies of the Antilles, Senegal, Cayenne, and Haiti, where they had been sent by the French government. This great and rapid success was due chiefly to the skillful and energetic administration of Jean de Lamennais. For forty years he was the one who attracted and trained the recruits, guided the young teachers, opened and visited the schools.

His native land has not forgotten him. At Ploërmel a statue has been raised to the memory of this man, who perhaps has done more than any other in the nineteenth century for the Christian education of the people.

In the beginning of the twentieth century, before the persecution in France scattered the teaching congregations, his institute was more prosperous than ever and counted among its members about 2700 religious, giving instruction to 75,000 scholars, and distributed among 460 institutions, of which one was in Canada.

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