St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria, born of a noble family at Cremona in Lombardy, while still a boy seemed to foreshadow his future holiness. For in early life the indications of uncommon virtues were manifest in him, of devotion to God and to the blessed Virgin; especially an extraordinary compassion for the poor; in order to relieve their poverty, he was ready more than once to strip off his own rich clothing. He studied the humanities at home, and then went to Ticino to learn philosophy, and to Padua for medicine; and easily surpassed all his contemporaries, both in purity of life and in mental ability. After obtaining his degree he returned home where, understanding that God called him to the healing rather of the diseases of souls than of bodies, he gave himself earnestly to acquiring sacred science. Meanwhile he never ceased to visit the sick, to instruct children in Christian doctrine, to improve the company of young people in piety, and even frequently to exhort those of a more advanced age to amend their ways. Having been ordained, when he was saying his first Mass, he is said to have been seen by the amazed congregation in a blaze of heavenly light and surrounded by a circle of Angels. Thereafter, he was more intent on the salvation of souls, and he took the very greatest pains to oppose the depravity of morals. To this end he received strangers, the poor, and the afflicted with paternal affection, and so consoled them with holy conversation and material assistance, that his house was known as the asylum of the unfortunate, and he himself well served to be named by his fellow-citizens an angel, and the father of his country.

At Milan, thinking that a greater abundance of fruit might blossom forth in the Christian body, if he was to take to himself some fellow-laborers in the vineyard of the Lord, having conferred on the matter with Bartholomew Ferrari and James Morigia, very noble and most saintly men, he laid the foundations of a fellowship of Clerics regular; which, on account of his love for the Apostle of the Gentiles, he named after St. Paul. This being approved by the supreme Pontiff Clement VII and confirmed by Paul III., in a short time spread through very many countries. The society of nuns called the Angelicals also had Anthony Mary as their father and founder. Nevertheless, he regarded himself in such a lowly manner, that by no argument could he ever be induced to be the head of his own order. And so great was his patience, that he endured to the end, and with a steadfast soul, the terrific storms which disturbed his disciples; so great was his charity, that he never ceased by pious exhortations to cause religious men to burn with the love of God, to recall priests to the rule of the apostolic life, and to found sodalities of married men, for the bringing forth of good fruit. Yes, he would sometimes walk with his companions, with a cross carried before them, by the cross-roads and open spaces, and by his ardent and earnest prayers he would lead back to salvation the wandering and the wicked.

It is also noteworthy that burning with love for Jesus crucified, he would have the mystery of the cross brought to the mind of all by the appointed signal of a bell every Friday evening. The most holy name of Christ was constantly made use of in his writings, and was even on his lips; and, as a true disciple of Paul, he exhibited in his body the sufferings of the crucified Christ. He had a singular love towards the holy Eucharist; he established the custom of its frequent reception, and is said to have introduced the practice of its being publicly adored on a lofty throne for a period of three days. He cultivated the virtue of modesty to such a point, that even in his bloodless corpse, which seemed to be reanimated; he bore witness to his love for that virtue. There fell to his share the heavenly gifts of ecstasy, of tears, of knowledge of future event, of the searching of hearts, and of power against the enemy of the human race. At length, entirely worn out with his great labors, he was seized with a dangerous illness at Guastalla, where he had been summoned as a mediator of peace. He was taken to Cremona, where amid the tears of his brethren, and in the embraces of his most pious mother whose imminent death he foretold, refreshed with a celestial vision of the Apostles, and prophesying the increase of his society, he died in the odor of sanctity on the third of the Nones of July (July 5), in the year 1539, the thirty-sixth of his age. Devotion to so great a man, on account of his extraordinary holiness and the abundance of his miracles was shown immediately by the Christian people, and the supreme Pontiff Leo XIII approved and confirmed it; and eh added Anthony to the calendar of the Saints by solemn rite on the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, 1897

Although the Order of Regular Clerics of St. Paul is comparatively recent, it having been founded shortly after that of the Theatines, yet a considerable amount of mystery seems to enshroud its origin. It has also been made the butt of atrocious assaults on the part of the enemies of religious orders. We shall merely content ourselves with walking in the footsteps of Helyot, to whom we look up as to a trustworthy guide.

The foundation of the Order of Regular Clerics must be ascribed to the year 1530, when its foundations were laid by Antonio Maria Zaccharia of Cremona, and Bartholomew Ferrari and James Anthony Morigia, both of Milan. Zaccharia was born at Cremona in 1500 of parents who belonged to the highest nobility of the city. From his earliest infancy he applied himself sedulously to the practise of virtue After finishing the classics, he studied philosophy and medicine at Padua, where he received the degree of doctor at the age of twenty. A religious of the Order of St. Dominic having advised him to embrace the ecclesiastical state, he began the study of theology. After his ordination to the priesthood, he attached himself to the church of St. Vitalis, where he applied himself with great zeal to preaching the word of God, his reputation spreading rapidly. As he possessed certain property in the city of Milan, it was necessary for him to spend there some months of the year in Order not to lose the right of citizenship which had been conferred on the family of Zaccharia. Here he became bound by the ties of friendship with two noble Milanese who belonged to a confraternity called of the Eternal Wisdom. The result of this friendship was the establishment of a society of Clerics, of which the principal duties would be the hearing of confessions, preaching, the instruction of youth, the direction of seminaries, missions, and other works under the guidance of the Bishops. It was in the year 1530 that the first members were united, and in a short time they were joined by other companions, the first of whom were Francisco Lucco and Giacomo Caseo. The two other founders of this order, as we have said, were both Milanese. Bartholomew Ferrari was born in 1497. He studied law at Pavia, and led a very edifying life. After returning to Milan he assumed the ecclesiastical habit and entered the Confraternity of the Eternal Wisdom. With the greatest zeal he visited the hospitals and devoted himself to the works of mercy.

James Anthony Morigia, the third founder of the Order of Regular Clerics of St. Paul, was born of a noble Milanese family about the year 1493. Unlike Zaccharia and Ferrari, his early education was neglected, and the result was that having finished his studies he gave himself over to a life of pleasure. However, an occasional visit which he paid to relatives of his who were nuns in the Convent of St. Margaret, exercised a beneficial influence upon his heart to that extent that he conceived a disgust for the vanities of the world, and determined to embrace the service of God. He too entered the ecclesiastical state, and became a member of the Confraternity of the Eternal Wisdom. Shortly after he joined Zaccharia and Ferrari in founding the Congregation of Regular Clerics of St. Paul.

Towards the end of the year 1532 they addressed themselves to Pope Clement VII., to obtain the confirmation of their congregation. Basilio Ferrari, brother of one of the founders, was the Pope's secretary, and he employed his influence over the Holy Father to obtain the favor requested. In February of the following year, the Pope being at Bologna, granted them a brief, permitting them to found a new order of Regular Clerics, in which they might take the three vows of religion in presence of the Archbishop of Milan, to whom they were subject. They were at the same time permitted to make solemn profession, to admit others to it, to dwell in common, and to draw up constitutions for the regular observance. In the same year Francisco Sforza, Duke of Milan, permitted them to acquire real estate in the city and territory of Milan.

Zaccharia, having bought a small house near the gate of Pavia, introduced the common life among his companions, of whom he became the Superior, and he drew up the first constitutions of the order. A short time after taking up their abode in this house the first members of the order were joined by four others.

In 1534 Zaccharia gave his companions the habit of religion, which was that of the Secular priests of his time, but of a coarser material. Their biretta was round, according to the custom of Lombardy, but it was afterwards changed for the square one. They practised the greatest austerities and performed the most humiliating works. The novelty of their life caused them to be denounced to the Archbishop, the Inquisition, and the Senate, but the proceedings against them resulted only in their justification.

Paul III., who succeeded Clement VII., granted them new privileges in 1535, exempting them from the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Milan, and placing them under the protection of the Holy See. He also permitted them to adopt the name of Regular Clerics, and to elect a Superior whose office should be triennial. They had already chosen St. Paul as their patron, and had begun to call themselves by his name. The Pope permitted them to build a church in honor of the Apostle, and made them participants in all the privileges granted to the Regular Canons of the Lateran Congregation. Zaccharia, having been Superior nearly six years, assembled his brethren, and Morigia was elected to govern the congregation with the title of Provost. He had been ordained priest only a few months before.

In 1537 Zaccharia and a few companions undertook their first mission at Vicenza, whither the Bishop of that city had called him. Missions were subsequently given at Verona, Pavia, and Venice. The Nuns of the Order of the Angelicas, accompanied the Regular Clerics in order to labor at the conversion of persons of their sex. Zaccharia, being only forty-two years old, died in 1539 at Cremona, where he was born.

Morigia continued six years in his office of Superior, and in 1542 he was succeeded by Ferrari. In the same year they opened their oratory under the invocation of St. Paul. A few years later, in 1545, they changed their residence to the church of St. Barnabas, whence they obtained the name of Barnabites. There existed at that time another order of which the religious were also styled Barnabites or Apostolins. These formed a distinct body, and must not be confounded with the Regular Clerics, of whom there is here question. The Apostolins were suppressed by Innocent X. in 1650.

Ferrari, the second founder of the order, died in November, 1544. He was followed to the grave by Morigia on April 13, 1546. The constitutions of the order, drawn up by Zaccharia, had been changed in the general chapter of 1542, and in that of 1579 others were framed, which were examined by St. Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, and approved by Pope Gregory XIII.

Saint Charles held these religious in the highest esteem, and frequently made a retreat among them. One of their number, Father Alexander Sauli, afterwards General of the order, was the confessor of the saint . At that time the holy Cardinal, experiencing great difficulty in his endeavors to reform the order of the Humiliati, desired to unite them with the Barnabites, who would thus have made an acquisition of one hundred and fifty religious, and of more than twentyfive thousand scnti, which was their revenue. The Regular Clerics would, however, not accede to the proposition, for fear of being contaminated by the new-comers. The union, therefore, did not take place, and the Humiliati were suppressed by Pope Pius V.

After the death of the founders, the Order of Barnabites spread rapidly throughout Italy, where they obtained a number of colleges, as their houses are called. In 1608 Henry IV. called them to France, and afterwards Louis XIII. permitted them to establish themselves throughout the kingdom. They also obtained foundations in Austria, Bohemia, and Savoy. The Barnabites occupied professors' chairs in the universities of Milan and Pavia; they were theologians to the grand-dukes of Florence, and they gave many bishops to the cities of Italy.

Among those of their members who have distinguished themselves by their learning and piety we mention Alexander de Sauli, Charles a Basilica Petri, annalist of the diocese of Milan, and Gavanti, the rubricist. The habit of the order is that worn by the clergy of Lombardy at the time when it was founded.

Besides the fast-days of the Church, these religious fast on every Friday of the year, the two last days of Carnival, and from the first Sunday of Advent until Christmas. They abstain every Wednesday and observe a rigorous silence from the evening examination until after Matins the following day. In the beginning, like the Theatines, they practised extreme poverty, neither possessing revenues nor begging, but at a later period they accepted real estate and revenues. Besides the three vows, they bind themselves by a fourth, never to seek after dignities within or without the order, and not to accept them outside of the order without the permission of the Pope. Their laybrothers are not admitted to the habit until after a trial of five years. They hold a general chapter every three years, and their Superiors may be re-elected for three years more, but may not be continued in office for a longer period. Pope Alexander VII. removed the residence of their General from Milan to Rome, and decreed that their general chapters should be held in the latter city, but Innocent XI. modified the decree and decided that the chapters should convene alternately at Milan and at Rome.



Prayer: Grant, O Lord God, that in the spirit of Paul the Apostle, we may learn the knowledge of Jesus Christ, which surpasses all understanding: wherein blessed Anthony Mary was marvelously learned, who gathered together in Thy Church new households of clerics and of virgins. Through our Lord, Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God world without end. Amen