Saint Joseph Calasanctius, Confessor (1962 Roman Calendar)

Saint Joseph Calasanctius was born in 1557 at Peralta de la Sal, in Aragon, Spain, of a good family. From his youth he was devout and drawn to the service of God, and after his studies he was ordained a priest. He served the Church in his native land with zeal and was esteemed for his learning and holiness; but God was preparing him for a work that would carry his name far beyond Spain.

Apostle of Christian schools

Coming to Rome, Saint Joseph was moved with pity at the sight of the many poor and neglected children of the city, who grew up without instruction, without learning, and without due care for their souls. Seeing that ignorance was for the poor a gateway to vice and ruin, he resolved to open schools where the children of the poor might be taught without charge — not only letters and the useful arts, but above all the truths of the faith and the fear of God. He is honoured as a pioneer of the free, popular Christian school.

To carry on and to extend this work, Saint Joseph gathered companions and founded a religious congregation devoted to the Christian education of youth, commonly known as the Piarists, or the Order of the Pious Schools. He laboured for the rest of his long life in this apostolate, teaching the young himself, training his religious, and spreading his schools to many places. He united to his zeal a deep spirit of prayer and a love of the poor children whom he called his masters and his charge.

Trials and holy death

The latter years of Saint Joseph were marked by heavy trials. His Order, like many a good work, was beset by difficulties, misunderstandings, and opposition, and the holy founder saw the institute he had built brought low and even, for a time, reduced in standing. Through all this he bore himself with admirable patience, humility, and trust in God, never losing his peace nor his charity toward those who opposed him, and is justly remembered as a model of constancy under adversity. He lived to a great age and died at Rome on the twenty-fifth of August, 1648, in his ninety-second year; his Order was afterward fully restored and continues its work to this day.

He was canonised, and in modern times was declared the heavenly patron of all Christian popular schools. The collect of his feast praises God who adorned Saint Joseph with charity and patience in instructing the young in the spirit of wisdom and of piety, and asks that we who venerate him as a teacher may ever follow his example. In him the Church honours a priest who spent himself for the poor and the young, and who saw in the education of children a labour of charity for Christ.

The Collect

O God, who didst adorn blessed Joseph thy Confessor with charity and patience for the instructing of youth in the spirit of understanding and of piety, and didst raise him up in thy Church to be a teacher of wisdom: grant, we beseech thee; that we may so follow him whom we venerate as a master, that we may obtain everlasting rewards.

Deus, qui beátum Iosephum Confessórem tuum ad erudiéndam spíritu intelléctus ac pietátis iuventútem caritate et patiéntia ornasti, et in Ecclésia tua novum per eum subsídium excitáre dignatus es: præsta, quæsumus; ut eius exemplo et intercessióne ita faciámus et dóceamus, ut præmia consequamur ætérna.

Patronage

He is venerated as the founder of the Piarist Order and is honoured as the heavenly patron of all Christian popular schools and of those who teach children.

In the Modern Calendar

In the modern calendar his memorial is observed on 25 August, the anniversary of his death, as an optional memorial.

Common Questions

When is the feast of Saint Joseph Calasanctius?

In the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal his feast is kept on 27 August as a Third Class feast. In the modern calendar his memorial is observed on 25 August, the anniversary of his death.

Who was Saint Joseph Calasanctius?

He was a Spanish priest of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries who, moved by the plight of the poor and neglected children of Rome, opened free Christian schools for them and founded the Piarist Order to carry on the work. He is honoured as a pioneer of popular Christian education and died in 1648 at a great age.

What is Saint Joseph Calasanctius the patron of?

He is honoured as the heavenly patron of all Christian popular schools and of those who teach children. His name is especially dear to the Piarist Order, which continues the work of free education that he began, and to all who labour in the Christian instruction of the young.

See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.

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