Paschal Baylón (24 May 1540 – 15 May 1592) was a Spanish Roman Catholic lay professed religious of the Order of Friars Minor.

He was refused once but later was admitted as a Franciscan lay brother and became noted for his strict austerities, as well as his love for and compassion towards the sick.

On 28 November 1897, Pope Leo XIII proclaimed St Paschal Baylón patron of Eucharistic Congresses and Confraternities.

[4] He was named Paschal in honour of Pascua de Pentecosta, for local custom required that a child be called after the saint or feast day on which it was born.

From his seventh to his twenty-fourth year, he led the life of a shepherd, and during the whole of that period exercised a salutary influence upon his companions.

Some of his companions were much inclined to cursing, quarrelling, and fighting; but learnt to hold their tongue in his presence since they respected his pious nature and his virtue.

[8] Those to whom he first mentioned his inclination to religious life, recommended several richly endowed monasteries, but he answered, "I was born poor and am resolved to die in poverty and penance".

On one occasion, in the course of a journey through France, he defended the dogma of the Real Presence against a Calvinist preacher, and in consequence, narrowly escaped death at the hands of a Huguenot mob.

[10] Art often depicts him wearing the Franciscan habit and bearing a monstrance to signify his devotion to the Holy Eucharist.