Note 41 — Chapter XIII · (continued 2)

José de Calasanz, or as he is sometimes called, Joseph de Calasanzio, was born at Peralta, Cataluña, in 1556, and became a well-known ecclesiastic. On the occasion of a visit to Rome in 1592, touched with compassion at the neglected condition of the poor children, he renounced his ecclesiastical honors in Spain and devoted himself to the work of teaching in Rome. There he founded the Congregation of the Piaristes, consisting of regular clerics, about 1,600, whose object was the charitable education of poor children. The congregation was approved in 1617 by Paul V, who permitted members to take the simple vows and adopt their own rules. In 1621 Gregory XV gave them the title of “Regular clerics of the poor, under the protection of the Mother of God, for charitable schools.” The work soon spread to the rest of Italy, and to Germany and Poland. The mother house is at Rome. Its founder, who died in 1648, and was canonized in 1767, refused to accept the honors of bishop or cardinal. See Grande Encyclopédie. ↑