Portal:Catholic Church/Patron Archive/August 25 2007

Saint Joseph Calasanctius (September 11, 1556 - 25 August 1648), also known as Joseph Calasanz or Calasanz, or as he was called in religion Josephus a Matre Dei was the founder of the Piarists.

Calasanctius was born at the castle of Calasanz near Peralta de la Sal, Aragon, in what is now Spain. His parents, Don Pedro Calasanza and Donna Maria Gaston, gave him a good education. 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 honours completed his theological course at Valencia and Alcalá de Henares. His mother and brother having died, Don Pedro wanted Joseph to marry and perpetuate the family. But a sickness in 1582 soon brought Joseph to the brink of the grave. On his recovery he was ordained priest on 17 December 1583, by Hugo Ambrosio de Moncada, Bishop of Urgel.

Joseph began his labours as priest in the Diocese of Albarracín, where Bishop dela Figuera appointed him his theologian and confessor, synodal examiner and procurator. In 1592 he embarked for Rome. 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 pastor of S. Dorotea, Anthony Brendani, offered him two rooms and promised assistance in teaching, and when two other priests promised similar help, Calasanctius, in November, 1597, opened the first public free school in Europe. In a short time Joseph had about a thousand children under his charge. In 1602 he commenced a community life with his assistants and laid the foundation of the Order of the Pious Schools or Piarist.

He died on 25 August, 1648, in Rome.

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