St. Paul of the Cross & Our Beginnings

An ardent and tireless missionary, he saved countless souls and healed many of the sick and lame. By the love and grace of God he persevered in his life of love and sacrifice to the end and died in the scent of sanctity.

Some nine months before the Declaration of Independence was signed, St. Paul of the Cross died the death of a saint, after spending eighty years in the service of Christ.
Born in Ovada, Italy the third of January 1694, he demonstrated a pronounced disposition toward prayer and virtue at a very tender age. His favorite meditation was the crucifix. By the time he was twenty-five, he was sufficiently advanced in sanctity to be blessed with a vision in which he saw himself clothed in the habit still worn today by the Passionist Order.
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From that time on he felt an ardent desire to found a new congregation. In November 1720, his Bishop clothed St. Paul in a habit similar to that of his vision, and soon began writing the rules for his new congregation. A formidable, and usually quite lengthy task subject to repeated changes by the Holy See, St. Paul’s Rule of the Congregation of Passionists was approved in a relatively short time and with very few modifications.

Ordained to the priesthood by Pope Benedict XIII, St. Paul was granted permission to found his new Congregation by the same pope. By September 1737, the first Monastery of the new Congregation was solemnly dedicated at Monte Argentaro, Italy.

His zeal for souls and his indefatigable labors and sacrifices brought him extraordinary graces and through him God wrought many miracles. An ardent and tireless missionary, he saved countless souls and healed many of the sick and lame. By the love and grace of God he persevered in his life of love and sacrifice to the end and died in the scent of sanctity.