St. Paul of the Cross

St. Paul of the Cross was born Paolo Francesco Danei on 3 January 1694 at Ovada in northern Italy, and died on 18 October 1775 at Rome. After a youth of prayer and penance, he received what he understood as a divine call to found a community devoted to the Passion of Christ. Following an intense forty-day retreat during which he wrote the rule of the new order, he and his brother gathered companions and, after years of hardship and papal approval, established the Congregation of the Passion (the Passionists).

A mystic who bore great interior sufferings, he was also a tireless missionary preacher throughout Italy, moving hardened sinners to conversion by preaching the crucified Christ, whose Passion he called 'the greatest and most overwhelming work of God's love.' He also founded an order of Passionist nuns. Renowned for miracles and prophecy in his lifetime, he was canonized in 1867 by Pope Pius IX.