St. Joseph Calasanz, Patron Of: Colleges, Schools for the Poor, Schoolchildren, Universities

St. Joseph Calasanz

Feast Day:
Roman Rite Calendar - 08/25

Patron Of: Colleges, Schools for the Poor, Schoolchildren, Schools, Students, Universities

Also known as
    Joseph Calasanctius
    Joseph of Our Lady
    Joseph Calsanza

Memorial
25 August
formerly 27 August

Profile
    Youngest of five children born to Don Pedro Calasanz and Donna Maria Gastonia. His mother and a brother died while he was still in school. Studied at Estadilla, at the University of Lereda, at Valencia, and at Alcala de Henares. Obtained degrees in canon law and theology. His father wanted the boy to become a soldier, to marry, and to continue the family. However, a near fatal illness in 1582 caused him to seriously examine his life, and he realized a call to the religious life.

    Ordained on 17 December 1583. Parish priest at Albarracin. Secretary and confessor to his bishop, synodal examiner, and procurator. Revived religious zeal among the laity, discipline among the clergy in a section of the Pyrenees. Both his bishop and his father died in 1587.

    Vicar-general of Trempe, Spain. Following a vision, he gave away much of his inheritance, renounced most of the rest, and travelled to Rome in 1592. Worked in the household of Cardinal Ascanio Colonna as thelogical advisor for the cardinal, tutor to the cardinal's nephew. Worked with plague victims in 1595.

    Member of the Confraternity for Christian Doctrine. Tried to get poor children, many of them orphans and/or homeless, into school. The teachers, already poorly paid, refused to work with the new students without a raise; in November 1597, Joseph and two fellow priests opened a small, free school for poor children. Pope Clement VIII, and later Pope Paul V, contributed toward their work. He was soon supervising several teachers and hundreds of students.

    In 1602 they moved to larger quarters, and reorganized the teaching priests into a community. In 1612 they moved to the Torres palace to have even more room. In 1621 the community was recognized as a religious order called Le Sciole Pie (Religious Schools), also known as the Piarists, or Scolopii or Ordo Clericorum Regularium Pauperum Matris Dei Scholarum Piarum or Order of Poor Clerks Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools; Joseph acted as superior of the Order.

    The community encountered many obstacles - Joseph's friendship with the astronomer Galileo Galilei caused a stir with some Church officials. Some of the ruling class objected that to educate the poor would cause social unrest. Other Orders that worked with the poor were afraid they would be absorbed by the Piarists. But they group continued to have papal support, and continued to do good work.

    In his old age, Joseph suffered through seeing his Order torn apart. He was accused of incompetence by Father Mario Sozzi, who was chosen as new superior of the Order. Sozzi died in 1643, and was replaced by Father Cherubini; he pursued the same course as Sozzi, and nearly destroyed the Order. A papal commission charged with examining the Order acquitted Joseph of all accusations, and in 1645, returned him to superior of the Order, but internal dissent continued, and in 1646 Pope Innocent X dissolved the Order, placing the priests under control of their local bishops.

    The Piarists were reorganized in 1656, eight years after Joseph's death. They were restored as a religious order in 1669, and continue their good work today.

Born
11 September 1556 at Peralta, Barbastro, Aragon, Spain in his father's castle

Died
25 August 1648 at Rome, Italy of natural causes; buried at Saint Panteleone, Rome

Name Meaning
whom the Lord adds (Joseph)

Beatified
18 August 1748 by Pope Benedict XIV

Canonized
16 July 1767 by Pope Clement XIII

Patronage
    colleges
    schoolchildren
    schools
    schools for the poor
    students
    universities
    (areas 'assigned' by Pope Pius XII)

Saint Joseph Calasanz, Priest

Saint Joseph Calasanz, Priest
Optional Memorial
August 25th

Francisco de Goya -1819
The Last Communion of Saint Jose de Calasanz
Oil on canvas, 250 x 180 cm.
Church of the Escuelas Pias de San Antón, Madrid, Spain.

Called in religion "a Matre Dei", founder of the Piarists, born September 11, 1556, at the castle of Calasanza near Petralta de la Sal in Aragon; died August 25, 1648, at Rome. His parents, Don Pedro Calasanza and Donna Maria Gastonia, gave Joseph, the youngest of five children, a good education at home and then at the school of Petralta. After his classical studies at Estadilla he took up philosophy and jurisprudence at Lerida and merited the degree of Doctor of Laws, and then with honors completed his theological course at Valencia and Alcalá de Henares. He was ordained priest December 17, 1583, by Hugo Ambrose de Moncada, Bishop of Urgel. Joseph began his labors as priest in the Diocese of Albarracin, where Bishop della Figuera appointed him his theologian and confessor, synodal examiner, and procurator, and when the bishop was transferred to Lerida his theologian followed him to the new diocese.
In 1586 della Figuera was sent as Apostolic visitator to the Abbey of Montserrat, and Joseph accompanied him as secretary. The bishop died the following year and Joseph left, though urgently requested to remain. He hurried to Calasanza only to be present at the death of his father. He was then called by his Bishop of Urgel to act as vicar-general for the district of Trempe. In 1592 he embarked for Rome, where he found a protector in Cardinal Marcantonio Colonna who chose him as his theologian and instructor to his nephew. Rome offered a splendid field for works of charity, especially for the instruction of neglected and homeless children, many of whom had lost their parents.
Joseph joined a Confraternity of Christian Doctrine and gathered the boys and girls from the streets and brought them to school. The teachers, being poorly paid, refused to accept the additional labor without remuneration. The pastor of St. Dorotea, Anthony Brendani, offered him two rooms and promised assistance in teaching, and when two other priests promised similar help, Joseph, in November, 1597, opened the first public free school in Europe. Pope Clement VIII gave an annual contribution and many others shared in the good work, so that in a short time Joseph had about a thousand children under his charge. In 1602 he rented a house at S. Andrea della Valle and commenced a community life with his assistants and laid the foundation of the Order of Piarists.
Much envy and opposition arose against him and his new institute, but all were overcome in time. In 1612 the school was transferred to the Torres palace adjoining S. Pantaleone. Here Joseph spent the remaining years of his life in his chosen calling. He lived and died a faithful son of the church, a true friend of forsaken children. His body rests in S. Paltaleone. His beatification was solemnized on August 7., 1748, and his canonization by Clement XIII, July 16, 1767.

(Principal source - Catholic Encyclopedia - 1913 edition )

Collect:
Lord,
You blessed St. Joseph Calasanz
with such charity and patience
that he dedicated himself
to the formation of Christian youth.
As we honor this teacher of wisdom
may we follow his example in working for truth.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Reading:1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13 or [13:4-13]
[But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.]

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 18:1-5
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And calling to Him a child, He put him in the midst of them, and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

"Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me."

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