The Piarists (/ˈpaɪərɪsts/), officially named the Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools (Latin: Ordo Clericorum Regularium pauperum Matris Dei Scholarum Piarum), abbreviated SchP, is a religious order of clerics regular of the Catholic Church founded in 1617 by Spanish priest Joseph Calasanz.
The Piarist practice was to become a model for numerous later Catholic societies devoted to teaching, while some state-supported public school systems in Europe also followed their example.
Notable individuals who have taught at Piarist schools include Pope Pius IX, Goya, Schubert, Gregor Mendel, Tadeusz Kościuszko,[2] and Victor Hugo.
Joseph Calasanz, a native of Peralta de la Sal in the Spanish province of Huesca in Aragon, was born on 11 September 1557.
The youngest of eight children, he studied at Lleida and Alcalá, and after his ordination to the priesthood on 17 December 1583 by the Bishop of Urgel he moved to Rome (1592) where he organized, in 1607, a brotherhood.
In June 1616, Calasanz opened a foundation of the Pious Schools at Tusculum (Italian: Tuscolo) in the summer resort of Frascati.
The school, which is still in operation, opened in August 1616, and Calasanz brought to it a painting of the Mother of God, Our Lady of Grace.
He then opened schools in Narni (1618), which is located 43 miles (70 Kilometers) from Rome[5] and is where he completed writing his Constitutions, Moricone (1619), Magliano (1620), and Norcia, Carcare, and Fonano (all 1621).
The congregation received papal approval on 18 November 1621 by a brief of Pope Gregory XV, under the name of Congregatio Clericorum Regularium Pauperum Matris Dei Scholarum Piarum.
The term "Pauline" was omitted by this pope, although it had been part of the original name due to Pope Paul V. Gregory XV approved the constitutions on 31 January 1622, and the Piarists received all the privileges of the mendicant orders, with Calasanz recognized as general superior, his four assistants being Blessed Pietro Casani, Viviano Vivani, Francesco Castelli and Paolo Ottonelli.
Meanwhile, in Rome, Cardinal Tonti (1566-1622), the titular Archbishop of Nazareth, bequeathed a property to St. Joseph, which opened in 1630 with 8 students as Collegio Nazareno.
[8] The pedagogical ideal of Calasanz of educating every child, his schools for the poor, his support of the heliocentric sciences of Galileo Galilei, the scandals and persecutions of some of his detractors, and his life of sanctity in the service of children and youth, carried with them the opposition of many among the governing classes in society and in the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
According to Karen Liebreich, problems were exacerbated by Father Stefano Cherubini, originally headmaster of the Piarist school in Naples who sexually abused the pupils in his care.
Calasanz, therefore, promoted Cherubini, to get him away from the scene of the crime, citing as the motive only his luxurious diet and failure to attend prayers.
However, he knew what Cherubini had really been up to, and he wrote that the sole aim of the plan "... is to cover up this great shame in order that it does not come to the notice of our superiors.
Beatified in 1748 and canonized in 1767, he was declared "Universal Patron of all the Christian popular schools in the world" by Pope Pius XII in 1948,[11] because he had the glory of opening "the first free tuition, popular, public school in Europe"[12][page needed] and had proclaimed the right to education of all children, fought for it, and was persecuted because of this.
In 1897, the Piarists established the first teacher's college in Puerto Rico in Santurce, but the fathers returned to Spain following the Spanish–American War.
The Provincial Delegation of New York and Puerto Rico was erected on 30 August 1960, and the House of Ponce was canonically established on 26 November 1960.
In October 1944, Archbishop John Cantwell of Los Angeles offered the Piarists the care of St. Martha Parish in Vernon, and Fr.
[14] Following the second world war, Piarists from eastern Europe were sent to the United States, with the first four arriving in Los Angeles in 1949, but the archbishop said that he did not have work for them to do since they could not speak English well.
Father Joseph Batori arrived in New York City on 16 June 1949, and after a couple of days left for Lackawanna, where there were many Hungarian refugees living in the area.
He was assigned to St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, where he celebrated daily Mass and assisted on weekends, and he taught Latin at Bishop Timon, a diocesan high school.
By the end of the year, there were eleven Piarists (nine from Hungary and two from Poland) living in the farmhouse as a community, and they called themselves "The Founding Fathers."
In 1961, Bishop Coleman Carroll of Miami offered the Piarists Cardinal Gibbons High School, which had just been built in Fort Lauderdale.
The Piarists first went to Africa in 1963, establishing an apostolic mission in Senegal, which became a vice-province in 1997 and then part of the West African province in 2013, along with Guinea-Gabon.
Their habit is very similar to that of the Jesuits, a cassock closed in front and a cincture with hanging bands on the left side, although they usually follow the local customs regarding clerical apparel.
[16] Today, there are over 1,400 Piarist religious found chiefly in Italy, Spain, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Latin America, West Africa, India, and the Philippines.
To honor his faithful duty, the Polish King Stanisław August Poniatowski created the Sapere Auso medal.
[18] Saints Blesseds Venerables Servants of God In his Life of St. Joseph Calasanctius,[citation needed] Tosetti gives a list of 54 who between 1615 and 1756 died edifying[clarification needed] deaths, among them Peter Casani (d. 1647), the first novice master of the order; the fourth superior general, Glicerius Landriani (d. 1618); Cosimo Chiara (d. 1688); Petrus Andreas Taccioni (d. 1672); the lay brother Philip Bosio (d. 1662); Antonio Muscia (d. 1665); and Eusebius Amoretti (d. 1685).
Dionisius Pamplona was a holy master of novices, pastor and rector in Buenos Aires and Peralta de la Sal, and was the first Piarist killed in the fulfillment of his priesthood during the Spanish Civil War (d. 1936).