Paul of the Cross, originally named Paolo Francesco Danei, was born on 3 January 1694, in the town of Ovada,[1] Piedmont, between Turin and Genoa in the Duchy of Savoy in northern Italy.

In 1715, Paul left his work helping his father to join a crusade against the Turks who were threatening the Venetian Republic, but soon realized that the life of a soldier was not his calling.

With the encouragement of his bishop, who clothed him in the black habit of a hermit, Paul wrote the rule of his new community (of which he was, as yet, the only member)[1] during a retreat of forty days at the end of 1720.

[6] After a short course in pastoral theology, the brothers were ordained to the priesthood by Pope Benedict XIII on 7 June 1727, in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome.

[7] Their preaching apostolate and the retreats they gave in seminaries and religious houses brought their mission to the attention of others and gradually the community began to grow.

Paul called his monasteries "retreats" to underline the life of solitude and contemplation which he believed was necessary for someone who wished to preach the message of the Cross.

The austerity of life practised by the first Passionists did not encourage large numbers, but Paul preferred a slow, at times painful, growth to something more spectacular.

By the time of his death, the congregation founded by Paul of the Cross had one hundred and eighty fathers and brothers, living in twelve Retreats, mostly in the Papal States.

There was also a monastery of contemplative nuns in Corneto (today known as Tarquinia), founded by Paul a few years before his death to promote the memory of the Passion of Jesus by their life of prayer and penance.