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The saints

St. Joseph Calasanz

A Spanish priest who opened the first free public school in Europe in a Roman slum.

Feast: 25 August · 1556 to 1648 · Reformation and missions · Aragon, Spain, and Rome

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Portrait of St. Joseph Calasanz, an old priest in a black biretta, hand on his chest.

Francisco Jover y Casanova, 1879. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St. Joseph Calasanz

Trastevere, Rome, 1597

Joseph went to Rome as a priest and saw children in the slums running wild with no education.1

In 1597 he opened a free school for poor children.2

It grew into the Piarists, an order dedicated to schooling the poor.

Patron of Christian schools2

01St. Joseph Calasanz

Betrayed

In old age he was betrayed by members of his own order, removed from leadership, and saw the order suppressed.1

He bore it with patience, and the order was restored after his death.1

Live it this week

Pay for a poor kid’s schooling

Joseph started free schools. This week, give to a Catholic school scholarship fund or tutor a child who is struggling.

Notes

How we know · 2 sources for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Joseph Calasanz”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org
  2. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “St. Joseph Calasanctius”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.