Saint Paul of the Cross
| Saint Paul of the Cross | |
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"The service of God does not require good words and good desires, but efficient workmanship, fervor and courage" - Saint Paul of the Cross
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| Confessor | |
| Born | Paolo Francesco Danei 3 January 1694 Ovada, Piedmont, Duchy of Savoy (now modern-day Italy) |
| Died | 18 October 1775 (aged 81) Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Rome |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 1 May 1853, Rome by Pope Pius IX |
| Canonized | 29 June 1867, Rome by Pope Pius IX |
| Major shrine | Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Rome |
| Feast | 19 October 28 April (General Roman Calendar 1869-1969) |
Paul of the Cross (3 January 1694 – 18 October 1775) was an Italian mystic, and founder of the Passionists.
Saint Paul of the Cross, originally named Paolo Francesco Danei, was born on 3 January 1694, in the town of Ovada,Piedmont, between Turin and Genoa in the Duchy of Savoy in northern Italy.
His parents were Mark and Anna Maria Massari Danei. His father ran a small dry-goods store, and moved his family and store from town to town near Genoa trying to make ends meet. Paul was the second of sixteen children, six of whom survived infancy; and learned at an early age the reality of death and the uncertainty of life. Paul received his early education from a priest who kept a school for boys, in Cremolino, Lombardy. He made great progress and at the age of fifteen he left school and returned to his home at Castellazzo. In his early years he taught catechism in churches near his home.
Paul experienced a conversion to a life of prayer at the age of 19. Influenced by his reading of the "Treatise on the Love of God" by Saint Francis de Sales and the direction he received from priests of the Capuchin Order it became his lifelong conviction that God is most easily found in the Passion of Christ.
In 1715, Paul left his work helping his father to join a crusade against the Turks who were threatening the Venetian Republic, but soon realized that the life of a soldier was not his calling. He returned to help in the family business. On his way home he stopped at Novello, where he helped an aging, childless couple until the end of 1716. They offered to make him their heir, but he declined. His uncle, Father Christopher Danei, tried to arrange a marriage, but Paul had no plans to marry. When his uncle died, he kept for himself only the priest's Breviary.
When he was 26 years old, Paul had a series of prayer-experiences which made it clear to him that God was inviting him to form a community who would live an evangelical life and promote the love of God revealed in the Passion of Jesus. In a vision, he saw himself clothed in the habit he and his companions would wear: a long, black tunic on the front of which was a heart surmounted by a white cross, and in the heart was written "Passion of Jesus Christ". On seeing it, he heard these words spoken to him: "This is to show how pure the heart must be that bears the holy name of Jesus graven upon it". The first name Paul received for his community was "the Poor of Jesus"; later they came to be known as the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ, or the Passionists.
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