Saint Paula Montal Fornés

Paula Montal Fornés (religious name: Paula of Saint Joseph Calasanz; 11 October 1799 – 26 February 1889) was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the foundress of the Sisters of the Pious Schools. Montal Fornés dedicated her religious career to serving as an educator in Barcelona where she founded schools for people in the area. The death of her father when she was ten forced her to help her mother raise her siblings though was free to pursue her religious inclinations once this was achieved; she and a close friend began setting up a series of schools before formalizing her idea for the establishment of a religious congregation that would be based on education and the establishment of additional schools nationwide. Montal Fornés' cause for sainthood opened several decades after her death in the 1950s after being titled as a Servant of God; confirmation of her heroic virtue in 1988 saw her named as Venerable. Pope John Paul II beatified the late religious on 18 April 1993 and later canonized her on 25 November 2001. Paula Montal Fornés was born on 11 October 1799 as the eldest of five daughters to Ramon Montal and Vicenta Fornés; she was born into her father's second marriage. Her father died when she was ten and as a result of this she had to work as a lace-maker and as a seamstress in order to help her mother raise her siblings. Fornés extended this care to the other children in her parish. In 1829 she desired to devote herself to God and both she and her friend Inés Busquets opened a school in Girona to provide an education and a spiritual education to all those who needed it most. The school became a quick success and she was able to establish a college in May 1842 in her hometown and another later in 1846 in Sabadell. Fornés established her own religious order on 2 February 1847 in order to help staff and manage the schools.