Saint Paul of the Cross, Confessor
S. Pauli a Cruce Confessoris
Saint Paul of the Cross was an Italian priest and mystic, the founder of the Congregation of the Passion, whose members, the Passionists, devote themselves to keeping alive the memory of the sufferings of Our Lord. He died at Rome in the year 1775.
Saint Paul of the Cross was born Paul Francis Danei at Ovada, in the north of Italy, in the year 1694. From his youth he was drawn to a life of prayer and penance and to a singular devotion to the Passion of Jesus Christ, which would be the heart of his whole vocation. After a season of solitude and intense prayer, in which he believed himself called by God to gather companions devoted to the Lord’s sufferings, he set out upon the work that would occupy the rest of his long life.
Founder of the Passionists
With the encouragement of the Church, Saint Paul founded the Congregation of the Passion, whose members add to the usual religious vows a special promise to promote among the faithful the remembrance of the Passion of Christ. Clothed in a black habit bearing the sign of the Lord’s Cross and the instruments of His Passion, the Passionists gave themselves to preaching missions among the people, calling souls to penance and to the contemplation of the Crucified. Saint Paul himself was a preacher of extraordinary power, whose words moved hardened hearts to conversion throughout the towns and countryside of Italy.
A life hidden in the Cross
For all his labours, the inner life of Saint Paul was marked by deep prayer, austere penance, and a profound union with the suffering Christ, together with great trials of soul borne in patience over many years. He founded houses of his Congregation and a community of contemplative nuns under the same spirit, and he laboured to the end for the salvation of souls. He died at Rome on the eighteenth of October, 1775, and was canonised in 1867. In him the Church honours one who made the Cross of Christ the centre of his life and teaching.
The Collect
O Lord Jesus Christ, who didst endow blessed Paul with a singular charity to preach the mystery of the Cross, and didst will that through him a new family should flourish in the Church: grant, by his intercession; that, ever calling Thy Passion to mind on earth, we may be found worthy to attain the fruit thereof in heaven. Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
Dómine Iesu Christe, qui, ad mystérium Crucis prædicándum, sanctum Paulum singulári caritáte donásti, et per eum novam in Ecclésia famíliam floréscere voluísti: ipsíus nobis intercessióne concéde; ut, passiónem tuam iúgiter recoléntes in terris, eiúsdem fructum cónsequi mereámur in cælis: Qui vivis et regnas cum Deo Patre in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.
Patronage
Saint Paul of the Cross is honoured as the founder and patron of the Congregation of the Passion (the Passionists).
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar, this feast is observed on 19 October, the day of his death.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint Paul of the Cross?
In the 1962 Roman Missal his feast is kept on 28 April as a Third-Class feast. In the modern calendar it is observed on 19 October, the day of his death.
Who was Saint Paul of the Cross?
He was an eighteenth-century Italian priest and mystic who founded the Congregation of the Passion, known as the Passionists, devoted to keeping alive the memory of the sufferings of Our Lord. He died at Rome in 1775.
What is the special devotion of the Passionists?
The members of his Congregation take a particular vow to promote among the faithful the remembrance of the Passion of Christ, and they give themselves to preaching and to the contemplation of the Lord’s sufferings.
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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