Posted on 08/26/2002 5:20:56 PM PDT by Lady In Blue
Joseph Calasanctius was born to Maria Gaston and Pedro Calasanz in the family castle near Peralta de la Sal in Aragon, the youngest of five children. He studied the humanities at Estadilla, where his piety and virtue earned him the disrespect of his classmates. Though his father hoped he would be a soldier, Joseph went instead to the University of Lerida, where he took a doctorate in law. He then proceeded to study theology at the University of Valencia. He left Valencia to escape the attentions and temptations of a young kinswoman, and finished his studies at Alcala. He was ordained in 1583.
After various experiences which earned him many admirers, Calasanz was appointed vicar general of the district of Trempe by the bishop of Urgel. He was so effective that the bishop sent him to the desolate Pyrenean part of the diocese, in the valleys of Andorra. His work here to revive religion and to reform the clergy was very successful, and the bishop soon made Calasanz the vicar general of the whole diocese. Calasanz believed that he was being called to other work, and, in 1592, after leaving his fortune to family and charity, he left Spain for Rome.
In Rome, Calasanz came under the patronage of Cardinal Ascanio Colonna, whom he had known at Alcala. During the plague of 1595, he distiguished himself by his couragious service to the sick and dying, and entered into a "holy rivalry" with his friend St. Camillus of Lellis over who should give himself most freely in this charitable cause. For most of his first five years in Rome, however, Calasanz was concerned mostly with the instruction of poor children. As a member of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, he taught both children and adults on Sundays and feast days, and he became aware of the appalling lack of education among the children of the poor. He soon came to the conclusion that free schools were necessary for the religious and secular education of the poor. His attempts to convince the parish- schoolmasters, the Jesuits, and the Dominicans to offer this service were unsuccessful. Therefore, he opened a school himself in 1597, with the help of three other priests.
The school soon had many more than 100 students, and Calasanz had to hire additional paid teachers from the unemployed clergy. In 1599, the school moved, and Calasanz took up residence at the school as the Headmaster. By 1602, the school had more than 700 students, and moved once more, to a large house next to the church of Sant' Andrea della Valle. Calasanz broke his leg while hanging a bell, and was crippled and in pain the rest of his life.
The school's success, and a grant from Pope Clement VIII, aroused the envy of the local parish-schoolmasters, who began publically to complain and criticize it. A surprise inspection ordered by the pope returned such positive reports that Clement took the school under his protection. This protection was continued by Pope Paul V, who doubled the grant in 1606. In 1611, the school purchased and moved to a palazzo near the church of San Pantaleone. By this time, the school had about 1000 students, including a number of Jews who had been invited by Calasanz himself. Other schools were soon opened, and in 1621 the teachers were recognized as a religious order, the Clerks Regular of the Religious Schools, of which Calasanz became superior general. The congregation prospered, and spread through Italy and into the Empire.
Calasanz's success, however, continued to bother the local parish schoolmasters, as well as other rivals within the Church. It has also been suggested that the wealthy classes were alarmed by free education for the poor, fearing that their own superior positions in society would be threatened. Thus, a Fr. Mario Sozzi, who had entered the order in Naples in 1630, contrived to take power away from Calasanz. In 1639, he used his connections at the Vatican to become head of the order in Tuscany. He used this position to slander Calasanz and stain his reputation, denouncing him as too old and doddering to run the order. Legal battles, involving Calasanz's defender Cardinal Cesarini, resulted in Sozzi having Calasanz arrested and carried through the streets as a felon. Intervention by Cesarini saved the 82-year-old from prison, but Sozzi was unpunished. Sozzi was finally successful, having Calasanz suspended from the generalate and taking control of the order later that same year.
Calasanz was subjected to humiliating and insulting treatment during Sozzi's reign. In 1643, Sozzi died and was succeeded by Fr. Cherubini, who continued this policy. Calasanz bore this treatment with patience and meekness, urging the order to obey his persecutors as the authority, and one time protecting Cherubini from an angry mob of young priests, who were enraged by his behavior. The Vatican, meanwhile, was investigating the matter, and in 1645, at age 88, Calasanz was reinstated as general of the order. This victory was short-lived, however. In 1646, Calasanz's enemies, with the help of a relative of the Pope, convinced Pope Innocent X to turn the control of the order over to local bishops. In effect, the order was dissolved. Calasanz was reported to have said, upon hearing this news, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."
The job of reorganizing the schools fell to Fr. Cherubini, but his maladministration in other jobs resulted in his removal and disgrace. Calasanz was reconciled to him on Cherubini's death bed in 1648. A few months later, Calasanz himself died a few days before his 92nd birthday. His order was reconstitued in 1656, and restored as a religious order in 1669. The Clerks Regular of the Religious Schools (Piarists or Scolopi) spread from Italy into Spain, Germany, and Poland. Calasanz was canonized in 1767, being referred to as "a perpetual miracle of fortitude and another Job", praised for his heroic patience in adversity. His story inspired and consoled many other saints and priests in their own times of persecution. His feast day is now August 25, having been moved from August 27.
Catholic Education bump!
The break in his order started in 1639. Six years later the Vatican vindicated him. The Vatican worked slowly in those days too. Interesting.
This is definitely a saint for our times! Sounds like Polycarp. I'll have to add him to my prayer list. Now, this is a saint!!!
BTTT on the optional memorial of St. Joseph Calasanz, 08-25-05!
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August 26, 2005
 St. Joseph Calasanz
(1556-1648)
From Aragon, where he was born in 1556, to Rome, where he died 92 years later, fortune alternately smiled and frowned on the work of Joseph Calasanz. A priest with university training in canon law and theology, respected for his wisdom and administrative expertise, he put aside his career because he was deeply concerned with the need for education of poor children. When he was unable to get other institutes to undertake this apostolate at Rome, he and several companions personally provided a free school for deprived children. So overwhelming was the response that there was a constant need for larger facilities to house their effort. Soon Pope Clement VIII gave support to the school, and this aid continued under Pope Paul V. Other schools were opened; other men were attracted to the work and in 1621 the community (for so the teachers lived) was recognized as a religious community, the Clerks Regular of Religious Schools (Piarists or Scolopi). Not long after, Joseph was appointed superior for life. A combination of various prejudices and political ambition and maneuvering caused the institute much turmoil. Some did not favor educating the poor, for education would leave the poor dissatisfied with their lowly tasks for society! Others were shocked that some of the Piarists were sent for instruction to Galileo (a friend of Joseph) as superior, thus dividing the members into opposite camps. Repeatedly investigated by papal commissions, Joseph was demoted; when the struggle within the institute persisted, the Piarists were suppressed. Only after Joseph’s death were they formally recognized as a religious community. Quote:
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BTTT on the Optional Memorial of St.St. Joseph Calasanz, August 25, 2006!
BTTT on the Optional Memorial of St.St. Joseph Calasanz, August 25, 2007!
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."
ST. JOSEPH CALASANZ
Joseph was born in 1556, in his father's castle in Spain. He went to college and became a lawyer. He was ordained a priest at the age of twenty-eight. Joseph was given high positions and he did his work well. Yet he felt that God was calling him to do some special work for poor children in Rome. Obedient to the Lord's call, he gave up everything he had in Spain and went to Rome. There his heart was filled with pity for all the orphans and homeless children he saw everywhere. They were ignorant and neglected. Joseph began to gather them together to teach them all the regular subjects, and especially their religion. Other priests joined him. Soon Joseph became the superior of a new religious order. But he never let his duties as founder and superior stop him from teaching his beloved children. He would even sweep the classrooms himself. He often led the little ones to their homes after school was over.
St. Joseph had much to suffer from people who tried to take over his order. They wanted to run it their way. Once he was even led through the streets like a criminal. He was almost put in jail, although the good priest had done nothing wrong. When he was ninety years old, the saint received terrible news. His order had been forbidden to continue in the way he had started it. Yet despite this suffering, Joseph only said: "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. My work has been done simply out of love for God."
Two years later, in 1648, the saint died a calm, peaceful death. He was ninety-two years old. Several years afterward, his order, the Piarist Fathers, was allowed to continue St. Joseph's wonderful mission. He was proclaimed a saint by Pope Clement XIII in 1767. Pope Pius XII declared him patron of Christian schools in 1948.
Sometimes events or situations turn out differently from what we had planned. We might not be able to understand why. St. Joseph Calasanz shows us how to trust God and be patient. When we find that difficult, we can ask this saint to strengthen us.
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