Liverpool has more children at religious schools than almost anywhere else in the country - and many schools take their names from Christian figures.

But few people know much about the people their local schools are actually named after, however familiar the names may be.

Here is the real story behind the names of some of the city’s well-known schools.

De La Salle Academy, Croxteth

De La Salle Academy
De La Salle Academy

The academy, whose former pupils include Wayne Rooney, is named after a man called St John Baptist de la Salle.

He was a priest who lived many miles from Liverpool, born into a well-off family in France in the 1650s.

But he was passionate about educating children at a time when few governments provided schooling - particularly poor or unruly children.

He founded schools focused on modern languages, arts and technical education, and inspired many more - earning himself the title of patron saint of education in 1950.

Many schools around the world now form part of the De La Salle network of schools which he created.

St John Bosco Arts College, Croxteth

The brand new St John Bosco Arts College,Croxteth.
The brand new St John Bosco Arts College,Croxteth.

Another Croxteth school gets its name from a similarly passionate Italian man two centuries later called Giovanni Melchior Bosco - or ‘Don Bosco’ for short.

But he was certainly not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, growing up poor in a tiny cabin in rural Italy with his parents, who died when he was young.

He became a priest after starting out as a shepherd. One day in the 1840s he was shocked to see a colleague kick a street child in rags out of church because he had refused to serve Mass.

He went after the boy and told him to come back in - marking the start of what became his life’s mission helping children on the streets.

He taught them on the streets and then set up various night schools which drew in children from far and wide, apparently stunned by his kindness.

One school had dormitories for the boys, and Giovanni - or John, as he is known here - and his mum helped others set up similar schools in many countries through a group called the Salesian Sisters.

The Liverpool group of Salesian Sisters opened a secondary school for girls in 1965 in Croxteth, which was later renamed St John Bosco.

St Francis Xavier’s College, Woolton

St Francis Xavier’s College in Woolton
St Francis Xavier’s College in Woolton

Francis Xavier was a Spanish missionary born in the 15th century, who helped found a devout group called the Jesuits which wanted to convert non-believers.

He was sent to convert Portuguese colonisers in Goa, India, and the Japanese, but the Jesuits’ message spread across the world.

The Liverpool Jesuits built several Catholic chapels - including one disguised as a warehouse after an anti-Catholic mob demolished another - in the city.

One group called the Society of St Francis Xavier built the church and school which share his name in the mid-18th century, and they proved highly popular among Liverpool’s booming population of Irish Catholic migrants.

The original school by the church in Everton was moved to its current home in Woolton in the 1960s.

Archbishop Blanch CofE High School, Wavertree

Archbishop Blanch School on Earle Road, Wavertree. Pictured Head teacher Heather Duggan at the Spanish Steps.

This school was named after a much more recent figure - Stuart Blanch, who only died in 1994.

He was a popular Bishop of Liverpool in the 1960s and 1970s, described as “among the most gifted and able of 20th century Anglican clerics” by the Diocese of Liverpool.

He later became Archbishop of York, and after he died an annual memorial lecture was set up in his name, taking place at Liverpool Hope University.