October 20

Italian.
1694 - 1775

Born: Paul Francis Danei at Ovada in Genoa, Italy on January 3, 1694. His infancy and youth were spent in great innocence and piety. He was inspired from on high to found a congregation; in an ecstacy he beheld the habit which he and his companions were to wear. After consulting his director, Bishop Gastinara of Alexandria in Piedmont, he reached the conclusion that God wished him to establish a congregation in honor of the Passion of Jesus Christ. On November 22, 1720, the bishop vested him with the habit that had been shown to him in a vision, the same that the Passionists wear at the present time. From that moment the saint applied himself to repair the Rules of his institute; and in 1721 he went to Rome to obtain the approbation of the Holy See. At first he failed, but finally succeeded when Benedict XIV approved the Rules in 1741 and 1746. Meanwhile St. Paul built his first monastery near Obitello. Sometime later he established a larger community at the Church of St. John and Paul in Rome. For fifty years St. Paul remained the indefatigable missionary of Italy. God lavished upon him the greatest gifts in the supernatural order, but he treated himself with the greatest rigor, and believed that he was a useless servant and a great sinner. His saintly death occurred at Rome in the year 1775, at the age of eighty-one. He was canonized by Pope Pius IX in 1867.

Prayer...
Almighty God,
Father of mercies
and giver of all good gifts,
we come before you
to honor you in your saints
and to ask their help
in our many needs.
You promised those who ask,
would receive;
those who seek,
would find;
those who knock,
would have doors opened to them.
Hear the prayers of your church,
grant our requests,
and pardon our sins.

(Bring your requests to God)

O good Saint Paul of the Cross,
you proclaimed God's wonders
in the Passion of God's only Son.
By word and deed,
you became a spiritual guide
and preacher of the gospel
to a world grown cold
to the love of Jesus Christ.
Help me to see God's love
in the merciful cross of Jesus,
and teach me to trust
in the blessings God gives.
May the Passion of Jesus
be in my heart,
and bring life to all the world.
Amen.