St. Paul of the Cross was born at Ovada in the Republic of Genoa, January 3, 1694. His infancy and youth were spent in great innocence and piety. He was inspired from on high to found a congregation; in an ecstacy he beheld the
habit which he and his companions were to wear. After consulting his director,
Bishop Gastinara of
Alexandria in Piedmont, he reached the conclusion that
God wished him to establish a congregation in honor of the Passion of
Jesus Christ. On November 22, 1720, the
bishop vested him with the
habit that had been shown to him in a vision, the same that the
Passionists wear at the present time. From that moment the saint applied himself to repair the Rules of his institute; and in 1721 he went to
Rome to obtain the
approbation of the Holy See. At first he failed, but finally succeeded when Benedict XIV approved the Rules in 1741 and 1746. Meanwhile
St. Paul built his first monastery near Obitello. Sometime later he established a larger community at the Church of
St. John and Paul in Rome. For fifty years
St. Paul remained the indefatigable missionary of Italy.
God lavished upon him the greatest
gifts in the
supernatural order, but he treated himself with the greatest rigor, and believed that he was a useless servant and a great sinner. His saintly death occurred at
Rome in the year 1775, at the age of eighty-one. He was canonized by Pope Pius IX in 1867. His
feast day is October 20
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