Saint Joseph Calasanz of Peralta

The Saint applied himself above all to raising children under the rule of a wise discipline; the religious (Scalopii) still observe the same method. They receive children of all conditions free of charge, from the age of seven, and give them three hours of lessons in the morning and as many in the evening. The students go to Mass every day, say their prayers at the beginning and end of classes; they gather, even on Sundays, in their classrooms, to engage in various religious exercises, among others, to recite the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. Each year, around Easter, all these children are given the exercises of a retreat.

Let France be proud, as she rightly may be, of her Christian schools; but, as a respectful daughter, let her still yield the precedence here to her moth er. Rome has over her, as over all other churches, the glorious advantage of having been the first to open free schools for the children of the people. It is a holy priest who, struggling with courage against all obstacles, has left the world this beautiful example, and religion can say that the education of the poor belongs to her, both by right of birth and by right of conquest.

Saint Joseph Calasanz died at the age of ninety-two. He was canonized by Clement XII I, who inser ted his office into the Roman Breviary and fixed his feast day on August 27. The Pious Schools spread rapidly, not only in Italy, but in Spain, Austria, Moravia, Hungary, and Poland. The duties of the first religious were limited to teaching reading, writing, catechism, arithmetic, grammar, and bookkeeping. Later, the regular clerics opened large colleges where they taught not only the humanities, but also philosophy and theology.

The body of the Saint rests in the church of Saint Pantaleon in Rome , and is displayed in a beautiful porphyry urn above the high altar.

Saint Joseph is represented: 1° holding in his hand the coat of arms of his Order. These are the letters A and M intertwined, and surmounted by a crown and a cross. Below these initials of the Ave Maria are seen the sigla in Greek letters MP ΘY, to recall that the Order of the Piarists was p laced by its founder under the special protection of the most holy Virgin; 2° accompanied by a group of children of the people, a striking symbol of the philanthropic goal of the Order, which is the education of the poor class; 3° having near him an image of Mary whom he honored with a very particular devotion; 4° with an overturned miter at his feet, perhaps because he refused an episcopal see.

To compose this biography, we have made use of The Three Romes, by Mgr Gaxim e; Rome, i ts churches, its monuments and its institutions, by Abbé Rolland; and Local Notes provided by Abbé Corblet, historiog rapher of Amiens.