THE LIFE AND WORK OF ST. PAUL OF THE CROSS
(continued - April 2006)

3.  Spiritual Director and Lay Missionary

St. Paul of the Cross was not only the founder of the Passionists; he was also a fervent spiritual director and lay missionary.  At the age of twenty-six and as yet neither cleric nor priest, he felt called to an apostolate of leading people to a conversion of mind and heart.  In his spiritual diary of December 1720, he records his “continual desire for the conversion of all sinners”.

This same apostolic thrust is also contained in the Rule.  In the first chapter of the Rule of 1736 it is specified that one of the essential aims of the Congregation is to work for the salvation of others.  The founder saw in lay missions a form of ministry especially suited to this purpose.  In fact, the 1741 papal rescript approving the Rule for the first time designated missions as the sole purpose (finis unicus) of the Congregation.  Therefore, it is understandable why this ministry took first place in the activities of Paul of the Cross.

During the course of his life, Paul conducted approximately 180 missions in over thirty dioceses in Italy.  The method he used was essentially that which was customary at that time.  Besides the usual subject matter (sacraments, sin, death, judgment, heaven, and hell), Paul placed special emphasis on meditation on the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, as prescribed in the 1736 Rule, was given each evening of the mission.  These meditations compensated for the severity of the sermons on the last judgment and hell, which were overly emphasized in those days.

St. Paul of the Cross stressed the point that after every mission each priest must return to the monastery to recollect himself in “solitude, prayer, and fasting”.  For him, the monastic qualities of solitude, silence and prayer formed the essential substructure of the Congregation and its apostolate.  He presents this idea very clearly in a letter written to a priest desirous of becoming a Passionist.  “Our Congregation”, he states, “is built on this foundation.  If it were destroyed, the whole edifice would collapse, and we would be severed from that special mission given this Congregation by God.”  The founder himself very cleverly negotiated his time to allow for the dual activities of action and contemplation.  He went on missionary journeys three times a year (in spring, autumn, and winter) and spent the remaining time in the monastery.

Paul of the Cross and his brother John Baptist jointly led several missions.  While Paul took charge of preaching, lectures, and meditations, his brother as busy conducting spiritual exercises for priests and religious.

A deep friendship existed between the two brothers.  For decades, John Baptist was Paul’s confessor and spiritual director.  When John Baptist died in August 1765, these tasks fell to Fr. John Mary, who was also the Congregation’s first historian and author of the Annali della Congregazione, a historic work in which he described the establishment and growth of the Passionists from 1720 to 1795.