Joseph Calasanctius, called Of the Mother of God, was born of a noble family at Petralta in Aragon. From his tender years he began to shew that fondness for children, and that gift of instructing them for which he was afterwards distinguished. He called them around him when he was still but a child himself, and taught them the mysteries of the faith and godly prayers. He was deeply learned in profane and sacred letters, and it was while he was studying theology at Valencia that he bravely overcame the wiles of a noble and powerful lady and, by a brilliant victory, kept untarnished that virginity which he had vowed to God. He became a Priest in consequence of a vow, and was summoned by many Bishops in the kingdoms of New Castile, Aragon, and Catalonia, to help them in their work, wherein he surpassed the hopes of all, correcting depraved manners, restoring the discipline of the Church, and marvellously putting an end to hatreds and bloody feuds. But in obedience to a vision from heaven and many warnings from the voice of God, he left Spain and went to Rome.
In Rome he afflicted his body with extraordinary hardness of living, with watching, and fasting, and so passed his days and nights in prayer, and in the contemplation of heavenly things. He was used to visit the Seven Churches almost every night, a custom which he kept for many years. Having joined several godly Brotherhoods, it was strange how eagerly he relieved the poor by alms and every sort of kindness, choosing especially the sick and the imprisoned. When the city was ravaged by a pestilence, such was the charitable zeal with which he joined in the labours of St. Camillus de Lellis, that besides the great help which he brought to the sick poor, he would even carry the bodies of the dead on his own shoulders to burial. Having understood from God that his call was to bring up children in godliness and good learning, he founded the Order of the Poor Regular Clerks of the Pious Schools of the Mother of God, who profess as the special object of their Institute a singular care for the teaching of the poor. This Institute received the warm approval of Clement VIII, Paul V, and other Popes, and in a short time obtained a marvellous extension through many provinces and kingdoms of Europe. In this work Joseph Calasanctius underwent so many toils, and patiently bore so many griefs, that he was proclaimed by all men a wonder of endurance and a very image of holy Job.
In Rome he afflicted his body with extraordinary hardness of living, with watching, and fasting, and so passed his days and nights in prayer, and in the contemplation of heavenly things. He was used to visit the Seven Churches almost every night, a custom which he kept for many years. Having joined several godly Brotherhoods, it was strange how eagerly he relieved the poor by alms and every sort of kindness, choosing especially the sick and the imprisoned. When the city was ravaged by a pestilence, such was the charitable zeal with which he joined in the labours of St. Camillus de Lellis, that besides the great help which he brought to the sick poor, he would even carry the bodies of the dead on his own shoulders to burial. Having understood from God that his call was to bring up children in godliness and good learning, he founded the Order of the Poor Regular Clerks of the Pious Schools of the Mother of God, who profess as the special object of their Institute a singular care for the teaching of the poor. This Institute received the warm approval of Clement VIII, Paul V, and other Popes, and in a short time obtained a marvellous extension through many provinces and kingdoms of Europe. In this work Joseph Calasanctius underwent so many toils, and patiently bore so many griefs, that he was proclaimed by all men a wonder of endurance and a very image of holy Job.
Even when he was at the head of his whole Order, and toiling with all his might for the salvation of souls, he never ceased to teach children, especially the poor, to sweep out the school rooms, and to accompany the scholars home. Thus in spite of broken health he worked on for two and fifty years, with the greatest long-suffering and lowliness. He won that God should glorify him by many miracles worked in the presence of his disciples, and that the most blessed Virgin should appear to him, with the Child Jesus in her arms, blessing them as they prayed. He refused wealthy preferments when they were offered to him. He was eminent for the gift of prophecy, for the power of reading the secrets of the heart, of knowing distant events, and of miracles. The Virgin Mother of God, to whom from his childhood he had had an especial love, and other heavenly ones, honoured him by often allowing him to see them. He foretold the day of his own death, and the restoration and growth of his Order, which seemed at that time to be almost entirely destroyed. He fell asleep in the Lord at Rome, upon the 25th day of August, in the year of salvation 1648, and of his own age the 92nd. An hundred years after his death his heart and tongue were found whole and incorrupt. God glorified him by many miracles even after his death, and he was first crowned by Benedict XIV with the honours paid to the Blessed, and then solemnly enrolled by Clement XIII among the Saints.
