SOURCE MATERIAL FOR ST. PAUL OF THE CROSS

2. THE RULE OF THE PASSIONIST CONGREGATION

THE ORIGINAL 1720 TEXT

The original text of the rule composed by St. Paul of the Cross during December 2-7, 1720, during the time of his retreat in Castellazzo, has not been preserved in its entirety.  Only its Introduction, Epilogue, and a few lines of the text have been handed down to us along with the story that tells why.  In the beginning of February 1775, Paul of the Cross made a customary canonical visit to the Passionist Monastery of the Presentation on Mount Argentario.  At that time he commanded that all papers written by him and preserved in the monastery be burned.  The rector, however, asked one of the priests to copy quickly a part of the manuscript containing the original Rule. It is this copy only that has been preserved, containing the Introduction, Epilogue, and a fragment of the Rule. Initially kept in the archives of the bishop of Alessandria, it was later brought to Mount Argentario, where it was preserved as a true jewel along with the other writings of the saint.

St. Paul of the Cross wrote the Rule for his own community without ever having seen a Rule of any other religious order, his experience being limited to familiarity with the statues of a confraternity he directed in his native town of Castellazzo. Neither did he have any precise idea of the rights of the Church or of a Congregation.

It is understandable, therefore, that Bishop Cavalieri of the diocese of Troia, in which Paul spent some time, added notes and supplements to the founder’s text.  These additions pertained mostly to ecclesiastical law.  Although the bishop himself belonged to a religious order called the Pii Operarii (Pious Workers), it cannot be concluded that the Rule and Constitutions of the Pious Workers exerted an important influence upon those of the Passionists.  In fact, there were but a few places where the one text corresponded significantly with the other.

Importantly, the 1720 text did not contain the fourth vow requiring members of the Congregation to contemplate the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and to preach it above all.

THE CODEX ALTIERI TEXT (1738)

This is the oldest preserved text of the Passionist Rule.  Its full title is “Regole e Costituzioni da osservarsi dalla Congregazione dei minimi Chierici scalzi sotto l’invocazione della Santa Croce di Gesu Cristo, e della sua Passione” (Rules and constitutions to be observed in the Congregation of the Least Discalced Clerics concerning the invocation of the holy cross of Jesus Christ, and of his passion).

Although it is now stored in the archives of the Passionist Generalate in Rome, it had, until recently, been kept in the library of the family Altieri (hence its name “Codex Altieri”).  It is included in the critical edition of the various texts of the Rule published by Fr. Giorgini.  Written in 1736 by St. Paul of the Cross, it was sent to Cardinal Altieri in Rome.  Except for the notes incorporated by Bishop Cavalieri and Paul’s own modifications added in 1730 to lessen the severity of the manner of life, it is essentially the same text as that written in 1720.