Saint Joseph Calasanz

Joseph Calasanz Sch.P. (Catalan: Josep de Calassanç; Spanish: José de Calasanz; Italian: Giuseppe Calasanzio; September 11, 1557 – August 25, 1648), also known as Joseph Calasanctius and Josephus a Matre Dei, was a Spanish Catholic priest, educator and the founder of the Pious Schools, which provided free education to poor boys. For this purpose he founded the religious order that ran them, commonly known as the Piarists. He became a close friend of the renowned astronomer Galileo Galilei. Joseph is honored as a saint by the Catholic Church, following his 1767 papal canonisation. Calasanz was born in Peralta de Calasanz (before de la Sal) in the Kingdom of Aragon, on September 11, 1557, the youngest in a family of eight children, and the second son. His parents were Pedro de Calasanz y de Mur, an infanzón (minor nobleman) and town mayor, and Pedro's wife María Gastón y de Sala. Joseph had two sisters, Marta and Cristina. In his youth, he was nearly two meters tall. His parents gave him a good education at home and then at the elementary school of Peralta. In 1569, he was sent for classical studies to a college in Estadilla run by the friars of the Trinitarian Order. While there, at the age of 14, he determined that he wanted to become a priest. In this, however, he met with no support from his parents. For his higher studies, Calasanz took up philosophy and law at the University of Lleida, where he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws cum laude. He then began theology studies at the University of Valencia and at the Complutense University, which at the time was still located at its original site in Alcalá de Henares. Joseph's mother and brother having died, his father wanted him to marry and carry on the family. But a sickness in 1582 soon brought Joseph to the brink of the grave, which caused his father to relent. When he recovered, the Bishop of Urgel, Hugo Ambrosio de Moncada, ordained him as a priest on December 17, 1583.