The Order was formed in 1250 by the Blessed Eusebius of Esztergom (Hungarian: Boldog Özséb) of two communities: one founded at Patach around 1225 by Bishop Bartholomew of Pécs, who had united the scattered hermits of his diocese, and the other consisting of his own followers.

In 1246, Blessed Eusebius, Canon of the Cathedral of Esztergom, resigned his dignities, distributed his goods among the poor and withdrew to the solitude of the Pilis mountains, near Zante (probably related to present day Pilisszántó) to lead a life of penance with a few companions (see the ruins of the Holy Cross Monastery at present-day Kesztölc-Klastrompuszta [hu]).

Four years later, he is said to have been admonished in a vision to gather into community the other hermits living in the vicinity, for whom he built a monastery and church the ruins of which are near the village of Pilisszentlélek (today a part of Esztergom).

[3] In the same year, Eusebius proposed and obtained affiliation with the Patach community under the rule prescribed by its founder and was chosen superior.

He received the approbation of Ladislaus, Bishop of Pécs, for the new Order, but the publication of the decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council at this time necessitated a journey to Rome to secure final authorization by the Holy See.

The Order was accorded many privileges by succeeding pontiffs, among others that of exemption from episcopal jurisdiction, and provisions were made for the pursuit of higher studies in many of the monasteries, one papal regulation ordaining that no member could be raised to any dignity in the Order without the degree of Doctor of Divinity, for which a rigid examination was prescribed.

In 1381, the body of St. Paul, the patron saint of the order, was transferred from Venice to the Monastery of St. Lawrence at Buda, which thereby gained greatly in prestige.

Among the other famous houses of the congregation are the historical Polish Monastery of Our Lady of Jasna Góra (Our Lady of Bright Mountain) in Częstochowa, Poland, with its Miraculous Icon of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa (according to legend the work of St. Luke and discovered by St. Helena with the True Cross), and the monasteries at Pozsony (now Bratislava) and Wiener Neustadt near Vienna.

[3] In 1783, a number of houses in Bohemia, Austria proper, Styria, etc., were suppressed, and political disturbances in Hungary brought the same fate to most of the Hungarian monasteries which had rendered incalculable services to religion and education.

Among the members of the order to attain prominence were George Martinuzzi, bishop of Nagyvárad (Oradea) and cardinal (murdered 16 December 1551), an important figure in the history of Hungary; Matthias Fuhrmann of Hernals (died 1773), historian of Austria and editor of the Acts of St. Paul of Thebes; Fortunatus Dürich (1802) and Franz Faustin Prochaska (died 1809), editors of a Czech translation of the Scriptures.

On 13 December 1308, Cardinal Gentile Portino da Montefiore, as a legate of Pope Clement V, traveled from Rome to Hungary to grant the approval and, on this day, he also bestowed the rule of Saint Augustine on behalf of the Holy See.

During the 150 years of Turkish occupation in Hungary, the Church and Monastery of the Holy Cross, including his tomb, was destroyed.

On 16 November 2004, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, in approving the new liturgical calendar of the Pauline Order, authorized the inclusion of the 20 January as the feast of Bl.

The Pauline coat of arms contains within it the symbols listed by St. Jerome, according to pious tradition, which are associated with the last moments of St. Paul of Thebes' life.

This time is used to isolate a candidate for the seminary or religious life from personal and telephone contact with family and existing friends.

The entire period spent in the novitiate is to knead the novice, to show their convictions and stability to make the decision to become a monk.