Traditional Catholic Teaching

St. Paul of the Cross

The eighty-one years of this Saint's life were modelled on the Passion of Jesus Christ. In his childhood, when praying in church, a heavy bench fell on his foot, but the boy took no notice of the bleeding wound, and spoke of it as "a rose sent from God." A few years later, the vision of a scourge with "love" written on its lashes assured him that his thirst for penance would be satisfied. In the hope of dying for the faith, he enlisted in a crusade against the Turks; but a voice from the Tabernacle warned him that he was to serve Christ alone, and that he should found a congregation in His honour. At the command of his bishop he began, while a layman, to preach the Passion, and a series of crosses tried the reality of his vocation. All his first companions, save his brother, deserted him; the Sovereign Pontiff refused him an audience; and it was only after a delay of seventeen years that the Papal approbation was obtained, and the first house of the Passionists was opened on Monte Argentario, the spot which Our Lady had pointed out. St. Paul chose as the badge of his Order a heart with three nails, in memory of the sufferings of Jesus.

In some respects, St Paul of the Cross is not one of the "popular" saints. His own life was marked with what many would label "self-inflicted" austerities and humiliations that we might be forgiven for thinking, "I could never go that way". Tough as this rugged saint was on himself, he was, nevertheless, good-humoured and gentle towards others.

St Paul of the Cross stood out as a champion of spirituality for the common person. He absolutely forbade the priests of his order to preach in excessively lofty or verbose styles. Instead he required them to take great care to provide spiritual sustenance for people of all educational levels. He was most emphatic that the people be taught to meditate on the life, sufferings and death of our Lord. He insisted that meditation was not just for priests, monks and nuns, but also for the laity. In fact his whole approach to spirituality was one of stark simplicity needing only a willing heart and a little knowledge. Always his focus was in the suffering and death of our Lord and the love these should call forth in our heart. He died whilst the Passion was being read to him, and so passed with Jesus from the cross to glory.

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