Paulists

Paulists, or Pauline, is the name used for several Roman Catholic Orders and Congregations taken in honour and under the patronage of St. Paul the Hermit.

From the time that the abode and virtues of St. Paul were revealed to St. Antony the Abbot, various communities of hermits adopted him as their patron saint. These are treated on this page. ":The name Paulists, however, was also applied to the members of congregations established under the patronage of St. Paul the Apostle. :See the articles on Barnabites, Minims (Franciscans), Piarists and Theatines."

Male orders

The Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit

The Pauline runes

The order had its own runic writing whose origins are unknown. Unlike the Székely runic writing, it was written from the left to the right. In the 13th century it was dominant in Pauline writing and was used for centuries. Scientific research has largely neglected this writing, though deeper and more spread knowledge could promote historical research in diverse fields.

Several findings of this script variant is from South American archives, since the monks worked as missionaries there after being invited by the kings of Spain and Portugal to help exploring the continent. They had good relations with the natives, whom they even protected from the authorities. During this endeavour the Pauline monks used the Pauline runic variant in their letters as a secret code, reporting home about the atrocities committed by the Spaniards and the Portuguese against the natives.

This inscription can be found in the Cerro Pelado cavern, in Ecuador, South America. It was written around 1500.According to Dr. Gábor Hosszú. See webpage: [http://www.geocities.com/rovasiras http://www.geocities.com/rovasiras] .]

Pauline runes from South America, ~1500.

Interpretation in )

English translation: "Born in 1473".

Hermits of St. Paul of France

Also called Brothers of Death. There is much discussion as to 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}. There were two classes of monasteries, those in the cities, obliged to maintain at least twelve members, who visited the poor, the sick, and prisoners, attended those condemned to death, and buried the dead; and the houses outside the city, with which were connected separate cells in which solitaries lived, the whole community assembling weekly for choir and monthly in chapter to confess their sins. Severe fasts and disciplines were prescribed. The name Brothers of Death originated from the fact that the thought of death was constantly before the religious. 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. This congregation was suppressed by Urban VIII in 1633.

Hermits of St. Paul of Portugal

Among the conflicting accounts of the foundation of this congregation, the most credible seems to be that it was established about 1420 by Mendo Gomez, a nobleman of Simbria, who resigned dearly bought military laurels to retire to a solitude near Setubal, where he built an oratory and gave himself up to prayer and penance, gradually assuming the leadership of a number of other hermits in the vicinity. Later a community of hermits of Sierra de Ossa, the date of whose foundation is also in dispute, being left without a superior, prevailed on Mendo Gomez to unite the two communities, under the patronage of St. Paul, first hermit. At the chapter held after the death of the founder (24 January 1481), constitutions were drawn up, which at a later date were approved, with some alterations, by Gregory XIII in 1578, at the request of Cardinal Henry of Portugal, who also obtained for the congregation the privilege of adopting the Rule of St. Augustine. This congregation was later suppressed. Probably the most celebrated member was Antonius a Matre Dei, author of "Apis Libani", a commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon.

Congregation of Missionary Priests of St. Paul the Apostle

One of the societies of apostolic life founded on July 10, 1858 by Rev. Isaac T. Hecker (1819-1888) and four companions in New York. They use the initials C.S.P. after their names (Otherwise known as the "Paulist Fathers").

Female Congregations

Blind Sisters of St. Paul

Founded at Paris in 1852, by A. F. Villemain (d. 1870), Anne Bergunion (d. 1863), and the Abbé Jugé, to enable blind women to lead a religious life, and to facilitate the training of blind children in useful occupations. A home was established for blind women and girls with defective sight.

Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres

(Also called to St. Maurice). Known also as Hospitallers of Chartres. In 1696, the first community was founded by Fr. Louis Chauvet, parish priest of Levesville-la-Chenard, a little village in the region of Beauce, some 60 miles southeast of Paris.

Marie Anne de Tilly, co-foundress of the community, prepared her young companions for their mission: to instruct the daughters of the farm laborers, to teach the poor ignorant girls of the village, to visit the poor and the sick in their hamlets, to serve in the hospices in small communities of two or three sisters. As early as 1708, Father Chauvet had entrusted the growing community of the School Sisters to Msgr. Paul Godet des Marais, Bishop of Chartres, who provided them a house in the St. Maurice suburbs, an ecclesiastical superior in the person of Father Marechaux, and a name, that of the Apostle Paul who was to be their patron and model.From the time of its birth, one foundation followed another in rapid succession. One of their houses in Chartres, formerly belonged to a sabot-maker, and this gave them the name of "Les Soeurs Sabotiers", by which they were originally known. They devote themselves to teaching, nursing, visiting the poor and taking care of orphans, the old and infirm, and the insane.

There are no lay-sisters, but every sister must be prepared to undertake any kind of work. The interior spirit is a love of sacrifice and labor for the spiritual and temporal good of others. The postulancy lasts from six to nine months, the novitiate two years, after which the sisters take vows annually for five years, and then perpetual vows.

The congregation was dispersed under the Commune at the French Revolution, but it was restored by Napoleon I, who gave the sisters a monastery at Chartres, which originally belonged to the Jacobins, from which they became known as "Les Soeurs de St. Jacques". After the

After its revival the congregation soon numbered 1200 sisters and over 100 houses in England, Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Korea, China, Japan, Further India, the Philippines etc. In China a novitiate has been established for native subjects, and in Hong Kong a school for European children, besides various benevolent institutions. In Further India they founded thirty institutions, chiefly of a benevolent nature, in addition to a novitiate, which has already admitted a number of native postulants; in the Philippines schools and a leper hospital.

They settled in England in 1847 at the invitation of Cardinal Wiseman. In 1907 they had fifty-six houses in various towns. Their work in England is mainly educational, schools being attached to all their houses; the English branch is under the government of a mother general. Until 1902 they had over two hundred and fifty houses in France where, besides various kinds of schools, they undertook asylums for the blind, the aged, and the insane, hospitals, dispensaries, and crèches. Since that date more than one hundred and sixty of these schools have been closed, also thirty of the hospitals, military and civil, in the French colonies, three convents at Blois and a hospice at Brie. On the other hand, they opened five or six hospitals in the French colonies, six hospitals and 39 schools in the Philippines, and three educational houses and Saint Louis Hospitalin Siam.

At present, there are about 4000 Sisters of Saint Paul de Chartres in 34 countries all over the world. [http://www.spcspr.edu.hk/sisterse.htm] and [http://www.paulchartres.org/]

External links

*CathEncy|wstitle=Paulists
* This article incorporates text from the official website of the Sisters of St-Paul of Chartres: [http://paulchartres.org]
* Website of the National Shcrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, a Paulist Church and Retreat House in the United States: [http://www.czestochowausa.com]

References