Joseph Calasanz

Who they were

Joseph Calasanz was born in Aragon to a family of modest nobility; his father, a blacksmith, wanted him to be a soldier but let him study at Lleida and Valencia. A priest and vicar general of the diocese of Urgell, he went to Rome in 1592, where he tutored the Colonna cardinal's nephews while visiting the sick and prisoners.

What struck him most were the children abandoned in the streets to ignorance and vice. With the help of the parish priest of Santa Dorotea in Trastevere, who lent him two rooms, he opened the first free public school in Europe for poor children, and founded the Piarists, the Clerics Regular of the Pious Schools. He died in 1648 without seeing his order restored after its suppression; it was re-established in 1699, its members adding a fourth vow to educate the young.

The miracles

In 1948 Pius XII named him universal patron of Christian popular schools. The miracles examined for his canonisation are not described in the sources we have used.

Why that counted as sanctity

Calasanz saw that teaching poor children is a noble mission, like the work of their guardian angel, and gave his life to it through ruin and suppression of his own order.

Connected on this site

• Paula Montal Fornés Saint
  “Paula Montal Fornés (religious name: Paula of Saint Joseph Calasanz; 11 October 1799 – 26 February 1889) was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the foundress of the Sisters of the Pious Schools.” — Wikipedia
• Anton Maria Schwartz Blessed
  “Anton Maria Schwartz (28 February 1852 – 15 September 1929), born Anton Schwartz, was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Congregation of the Christian Workers of Saint Joseph Calasanz.” — Wikipedia
• Maria Anna Donati Blessed
  “As Mother Celestina of the Mother of God she founded the Poor Daughters of St Joseph Calasanz, the Calasanctian Sisters.” — this site's research
• Pius XII Venerable
  “In 1948 Pius XII named him universal patron of Christian popular schools.” — this site's research