Calasanza, Giuseppe

Calasanza, Giuseppe

(Josephus a matre Dei founder of the order of the Piarists (q.v.), was born in Aragon in 1556. He entered holy orders in 1582, and went to Rome, where he obtained the protection of Clement VIII, Paul V, and Gregory XV, the latter of whom, after the new order had been founded by Calasanza, named him general of it in 1622. He died in 1648, and was canonized in 1767. He is commemorated on August 27. — Fehr, Geschichte d. Moinchsorden, 2:51.