Saint Joseph Calasanz

Priest, Founder of the Piarists
(1557–1648)

Saint Joseph Calasanz was born on September 11, 1557, at Peralta de la Sal in Aragon, Spain, into a noble family. He studied law and theology at several Spanish universities and was ordained a priest. After working in the diocese of Urgel, he felt called to Rome, where he arrived in 1592. There he was appalled by the spectacle of thousands of poor children in the streets with no access to education, roaming without instruction or care.

In 1597 he opened the first free public school in Europe, in rooms attached to the church of Santa Dorotea in Trastevere, with the support of the parish priest. The school grew with extraordinary rapidity as the Roman poor responded to the unprecedented opportunity of free education for their children. Within a few years thousands of children were receiving instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, and Christian doctrine.

To sustain and develop this work, Calasanz gathered a community of priests who would devote themselves entirely to the education of the poor. This community grew into the Order of the Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools, the Piarists or Scolopi, formally approved by the Pope in 1621. It was the first religious order in the Church's history whose specific apostolate was the free education of children.

In his old age he suffered a terrible persecution. Members of his own order conspired against him, making false accusations to the Holy Office that led to his suspension from the governorship of his congregation. He bore this humiliation, which came when he was nearly ninety years old, with extraordinary patience and complete submission to the Church's authority. He died on August 25, 1648, at the age of ninety-one. He was canonised by Clement XIII in 1767 and declared patron of all Christian schools by Pius XII. His feast is celebrated on August 25th.