page_title: Joseph Calasanz
section_title: In Rome
hierarchical_section_title: Joseph Calasanz / In Rome
caption_attribution_description: Español: Zaragoza - El Pilar - Fachada - San José de Calasanz
context_page_description: Joseph Calasanz Sch.P., also known as Joseph Calasanctius and Iosephus a Mater Dei, was a Spanish Catholic priest, educator and the founder of the Pious Schools, providing free education to the sons of the poor, and the Religious Order that ran them, commonly known as the Piarists. He was a close friend of the renowned astronomer Galileo Galilei. He is honored as a saint by the Catholic Church.
context_section_description: In 1592, at 35, Calasanz moved to Rome. He hoped to further his ecclesiastical career and secure some kind of benefice. He lived there for most of his remaining 56 years. In Rome, Calasanz found a protector in Cardinal Marcoantonio Colonna, who chose him as his theologian and charged him with the spiritual direction of the staff, once he managed to express himself in Italian. The city offered a splendid field for works of charity, especially for the instruction of neglected and homeless children, many of whom had lost their parents. He joined the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine and gathered the boys from the streets and brought them to school. The teachers, however, being poorly paid, refused to accept the additional labor without remuneration.
  The pastor of the Church of Santa Dorotea in Trastevere, Anthony Brendani, offered him two rooms just off of the parish sacristy and promised assistance in teaching, and when two other priests promised similar help, Calasanz, in November 1597, opened the first free public school in Europe.
  On Christmas Day in 1598, the Tiber flooded to historic levels, reaching a height of nearly 20 m (65 ft) above its normal height. The devastation was widespread. Hundreds of the already poor families who lived along the river's banks were left homeless and without food. The death toll was estimated at about 2,000. Calasanz threw himself into the response, joining a religious fraternity dedicated to helping the poor, and began to help in the cleanup and recovery of the city. In 1600, he opened his “Pious School” in the center of Rome and soon there were extensions, in response to growing demands for enrollment from students.
  Pope Clement VIII gave an annual contribution and many others shared in the good work so that in a short time Calasanz had about 1,000 children under his charge. In 1602, he rented a house at Sant'Andrea della Valle, commenced a community life with his assistants, and laid the foundation of the Order of the Pious Schools or Piarists. In 1610, Calasanz wrote the Document Princeps in which he laid out the fundamental principles of his educational philosophy. The text was accompanied by regulations for teachers and for students.
  On September 15, 1616, the first public and free school in Frascati was started up on Calasanz' initiative. One year later, on March 6, 1617, Pope Paul V approved the Pauline Congregation of the Poor of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools, the first religious institute dedicated essentially to teaching, by his brief "Ad ea per quae." On March 25, 1617, he and his fourteen assistants received the Piarist habit and became the first members of the new congregation. The habits were paid for by the Cardinal Protector Justiniani, who with his own hands invested Joseph Calasanz in the chapel of his palace. They were the very first priests to have as their primary ministry teaching in elementary schools. Emphasizing love, not fear, St. Joseph wrote: "if from the very earliest years, a child is instructed in both religion and letters, it can be reasonably hoped that his life will be happy."
  While residing in Rome, Joseph endeavored to visit the seven principal churches of that city almost every evening, and also to honor the graves of the Roman martyrs. During one of the city's repeated plagues, a holy rivalry existed between him and St. Camillus in aiding the sick and in personally carrying away for burial the bodies of those who had been stricken. On account of his heroic patience and fortitude in the midst of trouble and persecution, he was called a marvel of Christian courage, a second Job. During the following years, Calasanz established Pious Schools in various parts of Europe.
  In October 1628 he was a guest of the Conti_di_Segni family in Poli,_Lazio and there he founded the Pious Schools.
  After convincing the pope of the need to approve a religious order with solemn vows dedicated exclusively to the education of youth, the congregation was raised to that status on November 18, 1621, by a papal brief of Pope Gregory XV, under the name of Ordo Cleric
caption: San José de Calasanz, Zaragoza
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