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 Saint Paul of the Cross Scott 586 (1975) October 20 is the Feast of Saint Paul of the Cross, the founder of the Passionists order. He died on October 18, 1775. His memorial is celebrated two days after the anniversary of his death so as not to conflict with the feasts of Saint Ignatius of Antioch (October 18) and the North American Martyrs (October 19).  Retreat (Monastery) at Mount Argentario Scott 585 (1975) Paul Francis Danei was born in 1694 in Ovada, in the Piedmont region north of Genoa. The son of devout middle-class parents, he volunteered to serve in the Venetian army but soon realized he was not a soldier. Paul had a spiritual conversion and at one point experienced a vision of himself wearing a black habit with a white heart and cross on it. He became a priest and, in 1727, assisted by his brother, John Baptist Danei, he formed a congregation at Monte Argentario, a Tuscan archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The congregation followed an intense devotion to Christ’s passion, which gave the order its name, the Passionists (the Congregation of the Discalced Clerks of the Most Holy Cross and Passion), and their symbol is as he envisioned it years before. At the time of his death, the congregation had one hundred and eighty fathers and brothers, living in twelve Monasteries (or Retreats) across Italy.  Basilica di Santi Giovanni e Paolo Scott 587 (1975) Saint Paul of the Cross died in Rome in 1775. He was beatified on May 1, 1853, and canonized on June 29, 1867, both by Pope Pius IX. His remains are interred in a side chapel of the Basilica di Santi Giovanni e Paolo (the Basilica of Saints John and Paul) in Rome. The church serves as the mother church of the Passionists Order and has an interesting history of its own. The church was founded at the beginning of the fifth century and dedicated to two obscure Christian brothers and court officials martyred in the fourth century. The church sits over the purported remains of their home on Rome’s Caelian Hill. It was rebuilt by Pope Paschal II in the 11th century.  Interior, Basilica di Santi Giovanni e Paolo Photo by Livioandronico2013 From Wikimedia Commons, used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license In addition, the church has a connection to the United States. Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York was the titular Cardinal Priest for the church in the mid-20th century, and undertook a remodeling of the church, with some funding provided by his friend, Joseph Kennedy. The interior of the remodeled church features chandeliers from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, and the church is a popular wedding venue in Rome. A walking path leading away from the basilica is named for Cardinal Spellman. In 1975, Vatican City issued a three-stamp set to commemorate the bicentenary of the death of Saint Paul of the Cross. Those stamps are used to illustrate this article, and include a portrait of the saint by Giovanni Della Porta (150 L stamp), the monastery at Mount Argentario (50 L value), and the Basilica of Saints John and Paul in Rome (300 L stamp). REFERENCES: |
