Saint Paul of the Cross

Paolo Francesco Danei was born on January 3, 1694, at Ovada, in Piedmont, Italy, into a family of modest merchants. As a young man he experienced a deep conversion and a call to a life of prayer and penance centered on the Passion of Christ. In 1720 his bishop clothed him in a black tunic, and in forty days of retreat he wrote the rule of a new community.

With his brother John Baptist he began living as a hermit on Monte Argentario, on the Tuscan coast, preaching missions in the villages and countryside. The Congregation of the Passion, the Passionists, was approved in 1741, and its members take a special vow to promote the memory of Christ's Passion. Paul was a sought-after preacher and spiritual director, though he himself endured long years of spiritual darkness. He died in Rome on October 18, 1775, and was canonized by Pius IX in 1867.

Passionists wear a black habit with a heart-shaped emblem reading "Jesu XPI Passio" (the Passion of Jesus Christ). His tomb is in the Basilica of Saints John and Paul in Rome. In the United States his memorial is kept on October 20.

Passionist parishes and retreat houses in the US, Mexico and Latin America celebrate with Masses and devotions to the Passion.