St Paul of the Cross spent much of his life teaching people how to pray and reflect on the sufferings and death of Christ. He was deeply convinced that the Passion of the Savior was the strongest expression of God’s infinite love for man and the best way human beings could approach God. “The world lives unmindful of the sufferings of Jesus which are the miracle of miracles of the love of God. We must arouse the world from its slumber”, St Paul of the Cross used to say.
The Early Life of St Paul of the Cross
Saint Paul of the Cross (birth name Paolo Francesco Daneo) was born on January 3, 1694 in Ovada, a small town located between Turin and Genoa in Northwestern Italy. His father, Luka Daneo, a wealthy merchant, had hoped his son would have assisted him in running the family business,but Paul, strongly influenced and encouraged in some way by his priest-uncle, decided to devote himself to God.
Led by his burning desire to serve God, Paul Daneo joined a crusade against the Ottoman Turks at the age of 21. After experiencing the violence and brutality of war, he grasped that this was not his way of serving the Savior and resigned from the army. According to one of his biographers, Paul Daneo came to the decision to quit the army after he had heard a heavenly voice telling him he should organize a congregation in honor of Christ.
Later, the young man had a vision of his true vocation: he was wearing a black rough wool tunic on the front of which was a heart with the inscription“Jesu XPI Passio” (“Passion of Jesus Christ”); a white cross and three nails had been seen at the top and bottom of the heart. And again, he heard a voice: “This is to show you how pure the heart that bears the holy name of Jesus must be”.
St Paul of the Cross – the Founder of the Passsionist Congregation
On November 22, 1720, a couple of months after the vision, Paul Daneo was vested in the Passionist habit by the bishop of Alessandria. (Although he had put on the black tunic with the Passionist emblem, the Passionist Congregation had not been founded yet). Subsequently, he retired to one of the town’s churches where he wrote his “Spiritual Diary” and the Passionist Rule for his future community which was referred to as “The Poor of Jesus”. In September 1721, Paul Daneo went to Rome to get the Pope’s approval for the Rule but the Papal guards turned him away. The Passionist Rule was approved by Pope Benedict XIV twenty years later, on May 14, 1741.
During all his life, Paul served together with his younger brother John Baptist (both ordained priests in 1727). They walked round Italy, preached the loving memory of the Savior’s sacrifice, taught catechism, served the Passionist community, ministered to the sick and poor and prayed for the conversion of England. Paul went on preaching and writing spiritual letters even after he had been elected Superior General. People called him “Paul of the Cross” because he always carried a large wooden crucifix with him.
The austere life of prayer, solitude and poverty, preached and led by Paul of the Cross did not attract a large number of disciples. Thus, the monastic community of the first Retreat (the Passionist term for “monastery”), founded by him on Mount Argentario in 1737, numbered only nine. Regardless of the numerous obstacles, St Paul founded 12 monasteries (including the first monastery of the Passionist Nuns) prior to his death in 1775.
Paul of the Cross was canonized by Pope Pius IX on June 29, 1867. There are six more Passionists that have been canonized so far; others, including the Bulgarian bishop martyr Eugene Bossilkov, have been beatified.
Sources:
Holy People of the World: a Cross-cultural Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, by Phyllis G. Jestice, ABC-CLIO, 2004
Lives of the Saints, Vol. 1, by Alban Butler,Herbert Thurston, Donald Attwater, Forgotten Books, 1962
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