Paulists

From the time that the abode and virtues of Paul of Thebes were revealed to Antony the Abbot, various communities of hermits adopted him as their patron saint.

A significant event in the order's history took place in 1382 when it became the custodian of the miraculous picture of The Black Madonna, believed to be painted by Luke the Evangelist.

Other monasteries and shrines survive in Germany, Slovakia, Croatia, Ukraine, Belarus, Hungary, Italy, United States of America and South Africa.

Controversy swirls around the origin of this congregation, but it was probably founded about 1620 by Guillaume Callier, whose constitutions for it were approved by Pope Paul V (18 December 1620) and later by King Louis XIII of France (May, 1621).

At their profession the prayers for the dead were recited; their scapular bore the skull; their salutation was Memento mori 'remember you're to die'; the death's head was set before them at table and in their cells.

[1] Among the conflicting accounts of the foundation of this congregation, the most credible is that it was established about 1420 by Mendo Gomez, a nobleman of Simbria, who resigned military laurels to retire in solitude near Setúbal, where he built an oratory and gave himself up to prayer and penance, gradually assuming the leadership of other nearby hermits.

At the chapter held after the death of the founder (24 January 1481), constitutions were drawn up, later approved, with alterations, by Gregory XIII in 1578, at the request of Cardinal Henry of Portugal, who obtained the privilege of adopting the Rule of St. Augustine.

In 1696, the congregation was founded by Louis Chauvet, parish priest of Levesville-la-Chenard,[4] a village in the region of Beauce, some 60 miles southeast of Paris.

As early as 1708, Chauvet entrusted the growing community of the School Sisters to Paul Godet des Marais, Bishop of Chartres.

Godet provided a house in the St. Maurice suburbs, an ecclesiastical superior in the person of Marechaux, and a name, that of the Apostle Paul who was to be their patron and model.

After its revival the congregation numbered 1200 sisters and over 100 houses in England, Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Korea, China, Japan, Further India, the Philippines, etc.

Guided by the motto of the congregation, Caritas Christi Urget Nos (The Charity of Christ Urges Us), at present, some 4000 Sisters of Saint Paul of Chartres work in 34 countries.