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Barnabites

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Congregatio Clericorum Regularium Sancti Pauli
One version of the Barnabite logo. "P.A." refers to Paul the Apostle and the three hills symbolize the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
One version of the Barnabite logo. "P.A." refers to Paul the Apostle and the three hills symbolize the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
Abbreviation B or CRSP
Nickname Barnabites
Formation 1530
Founder Saint Fr. Antonio Maria Zaccaria, B.
Venerable Fr. Bartolomeo Ferrari, B.
Fr. Jacopo Antonio Morigia, B.
Founded at Milan, Italy
Type Order of Clerics Regular of Pontifical Right for Men
Headquarters Via Giacomo Medici 15, Rome, Italy
Members 335 members (including 279 priests) as of 2020[1]
Superior General Chagas Maria Santos da Silva, B
Parent organization Catholic Church
Website barnabites.com

The Barnabites (Latin: Barnabitum), officially named as the Clerics Regular of Saint Paul (Latin: Clerici Regulares Sancti Pauli), are a religious order of clerics regular founded in 1530 in the Catholic Church. They are associated with the Angelic Sisters of Saint Paul and the members of the Barnabite lay movement.

Establishment of the Order

Second in seniority of the orders of regular clerics (the Theatines being first),[2] the Barnabites were founded in Milan, by Anthony Mary Zaccaria, Barthélemy Ferrari, and Jacopo Antonio Morigia.[2] The region was then suffering severely from the wars between Charles V and Francis I, and Zaccaria saw the need for radical reform of the Church in Lombardy, afflicted by problems typical for that era: dioceses without a bishop, clergy with inadequate theological training, a decrease in religious practice, and monasteries and convents in decline.[3]

It was approved by Pope Clement VII in the brief Vota per quae vos on 18 February 1533.[2] Later approvals gave it the status of a Religious Order, but it is still normally referred to as a congregation. Both the date and the vocation place it among the Orders associated with the Counter-Reformation.[2] Zaccaria's holiness moved many to reform their lives but it also moved many to oppose him. Twice his community had to undergo an official religious investigation, and twice it was exonerated.

The order was given the name of "Regular Clerics of St. Paul" (Clerici Regulares Sancti Pauli).[2] In 1538 the grand old monastery of Saint Barnabas by the city wall of Milan was given to the congregation as their main seat, and thenceforth they were known by the popular name of Barnabites.[4] After the death of Zaccaria in 1539, the congregation was favoured and protected by Archbishop Charles Borromeo of Milan and later by Francis de Sales because of their successful missionary work in Upper Italy. Charles Borromeo presided, in 1579, as Cardinal Protector, over the commission which wrote the Constitutions of the Order. The General Chapters of the Order were regularly held at Milan until the reign of Pope Alexander VII (1655–67), who ordered them to convene in Rome.[2] Pope Innocent XI (1676–89), however, finally decreed that they should be held in Rome and Milan alternately.[2]

These assemblies of the Provincial Superiors were held every three years for the election of a new Superior General, whose term of office was limited to that period, only one re-election being allowed to each incumbent of the office.[2]

The Society started pastoral activity among the working classes and in monasteries. In the early 17th century, the Barnabites gradually entered the field of education – work which was to remain a mark of their apostolate. They entered France under Henry IV in 1608, and Austria under Ferdinand II in 1626.[4]

The present Constitution is an updated version dated 1983, which takes into account the changes from the Second Vatican Council. There is a female branch of Religious Sisters, the Angelic Sisters of St. Paul, found by Anthony Mary Zaccaria, and an organization for lay people, the Laity of St. Paul, originally called the Married of St. Paul and sometimes referred to in North America as the Oblates of St. Paul.

As of March 29, 2025, the new Superior General comes from Democratic Republic of the Congo: the Very Rev. Étienne Ntalé Majaliwa, until that day provincial father in Belgium.

Character of the Order

As indicated by the official name of the order, the work of the Barnabites is inspired by St. Paul the Apostle. In an address in 2000, to the institute's General Chapter, Pope John Paul II noted, "[I]n pointing out the ideal of religious and apostolic life to his spiritual sons, St Anthony Mary Zaccaria emphasized charity."[5]

The members of the Order make, in addition to the three standard religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, a fourth vow never to strive for any office or position of dignity, or to accept such otherwise than under a command of the Holy See.[2]

The focus of the goals of the Barnabite Order, besides preaching in general, catechizing, hearing confessions, giving missions, ministrations in hospitals and prisons, and the education of youth, includes also a particular devotion to the thorough study and exposition of St. Paul's Epistles. Their habit is the black soutane which formed the usual garb of Milanese secular priests in the time of Borromeo.[2] He himself was not a member but is venerated by the Barnabites as a secondary patron saint of their Order.

The first missions undertaken by the Order were in Italy, France, the former Duchy of Savoy, Austria and Bohemia. In the 18th century, they started missions in China and Brazil. Today, they serve in 15 countries. Until 2021 they were active in Afghanistan, where they had run the Afghan Catholic Mission since 1933, interrupted only while the Taliban regime was in power.[6]

Saints, blesseds, and other holy people

Saints

Venerables

  • Giovanni Francesco (Carlo Maria) Bascapè (25 October 1550 - 6 October 1615), Bishop of Novara, declared Venerable on 19 December 2005
  • Antonio (Bartolomeo Maria) Canale (10 December 1605 - 27 January 1681), priest, declared Venerable on 26 July 1948
  • Karl Halfdan Schilling (9 June 1835 - 2 January 1907), the only post-Reformation Norwegian to be officially considered for sainthood, declared Venerable on 19 September 1968
  • Luigi Maria Raineri (19 November 1895 - 24 November 1918), cleric, declared Venerable on 7 November 2018[8]
  • Serafino Maria Ghidini (10 January 1902 - 13 January 1924), cleric, declared Venerable on 2 July 1994[9]
  • Vittorio Maria de Marino (7 June 1863 – 16 July 1929), physician and priest, declared Venerable on 21 December 1992
  • Cesare Maria Barzaghi (28 March 1863 - 4 May 1941), priest, declared Venerable on 6 July 1993[10]

Servants of God

  • Antonio Maria Pagni (21 December 1556 - 26 January 1624), priest[11]
  • Raimondo Maria Recrosio (1 October 1657 - 1 May 1732), Bishop of Nice[12]
  • Francesco Maria Castelli (19 March 1752 - 18 September 1771), cleric[13]
  • Fortunato Maria Redolfi (8 November 1777 - 8 April 1850), priest[14]
  • Giacobbe Maria Priscolo (1 June 1761 - 17 June 1853), priest[15]
  • Eliseu Maria Coroli (9 February 1900 - 29 July 1982), Bishop of Guamá and founder of the Missionaries of Saint Therese, declared as Servant of God on 20 May 1996[16]

Prominent Barnabites

Vincenzo Sangermano was a Barnabite who was a missionary in Burma and wrote several books about the Burmese people.[17]

Barnabites engaged in a wide range of teaching, scholarship, and technological practice during the early modern era. Many Barnabites became great scholars and scientists, including the astronomers Redento Baranzano and Paolo Frisi, the naturalist Ermenegildo Pini and the meteorologist Francesco Denza.

Several members of the Order became cardinals. The first was Giacomo Antonio Morigia, Archbishop of Florence (1683–1699), one of the founders of the Barnabites, who was raised to the cardinalate on 12 December 1695 by Pope Innocent XII, though his appointment was kept secret (in pectore reservatus) until 19 December 1698.[18] Hyacinthe Sigismond Gerdil, a Consultor of the Roman Inquisition, and former preceptor (supervising teacher), from 1758, of the Prince of Piedmont, afterwards King Charles Emmanuel IV, and then, in 1768, of Charles Emmanuel's sons, was named a cardinal in secret (in pectore) on 23 June 1777, and announced publicly on 15 December 1777.[19] Luigi Bilio (1826–1884), a Consultor of the Congregation of the Inquisition and collaborator in the production of the Syllabus of Errors (1864), was appointed a cardinal on 25 June 1866 by Pope Pius IX, and named Secretary of the Congregation of the Inquisition by Pope Leo XIII in 1883.[20] Others were: Francesco Fontana, appointed in 1816 by Pope Pius VII;[21] Luigi Lambruschini, appointed in 1831 by Pope Gregory XVI;[22] Antonio Cadolini, appointed in 1843 by Gregory XVI; and Giuseppe Maria Graniello, appointed in 1893 by Pope Leo XIII.

John Bellarini (1552–1630), who was the Visitor of the Order, and twice held the office of Assistant Superior General, was also a theologian who wrote a number of works including an influential commentary[23] on the Council of Trent.[24]

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

The popular name of a religious order which is canonically known by the title, given to it by Pope Paul III in 1535, of Regular Clerics of St. Paul (Clerici Regulares Sancti Pauli). This institute was founded by three Italian noblemen: St. Anton Maria Zaccaria (canonized by Leo XIII, 27 March, 1897), Ven. Barthelemy Ferrari, and Ven. Jacopo Morigia, the last two of Milan. Second in seniority of the orders of regular clerics (the Theatines being first), the foundation of the Barnabites as a congregation dates form the year 1530. Clement VII, by the Brief "Vota per quae vos", 18 February, 1533, canonically approved of the congregation; Paul III, by the Bulls "Dudum felicis recordationis", 28 July, 1535, and "Pastoralis officii cura", 29 November, 1543, exempted them from the jurisdiction of their diocesan. Lastly, the Bulls of Julius III, "Rationi congruit" and "Ad hoc nos Deus praetulit", dated respectively 22 February, and 11 August, 1550, confirmed and augmented the existing privileges of the institute, which, from being a congregation, thenceforward became a religious order in the strict canonical sense, its members, however, still adhering to the custom of calling it "the Congregation".

The popular name Barnabites came naturally to the Congregation through its association with the church of St. Barnabas, Milan, which came into its possession within the earliest years of the foundation of the institute, which was at first peculiarly Milanese. St. Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, presided, in 1579, as Cardinal Protector, over the commission which determined once for all the constitution of the order, and the general chapters were regularly held at Milan until the reign of Alexander VII (1655-67), who ordered them to convene in Rome. Innocent XI (1676-89), however, finally decreed that the general chapters of the Barnabites should assemble in Rome and Milan alternately. These assemblies of the provincials are held every three years for the election of a new general, whose term of office is limited to that period, only one re-election being allowed to each incumbent of the office. The members of the order make, in addition to the three regular vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, a vow never to strive for any office or position of dignity, or to accept such otherwise than under a command of the Holy See. The scope of their special vocation, besides preaching in general, catechizing, hearing confessions, giving missions, ministrations in hospitals and prisons, and the education of youth, includes also a particular devotion to the thorough study and exposition of St. Paul's Epistles. Their habit is the black soutane (tunica talaris) which formed the usual garb of Milanese secular priests in the time of St. Charles Borromeo.

Spread of the Order

The Congregation has never failed of the holy object for which it was instituted: to revive the ecclesiastical spirit and zeal for souls among the clergy. Church history records the substantial assistance which that saint received from them in his great work of reforming the Diocese of Milan; his biographies make mention of his affection for them and of the satisfaction which he took in sojourning at their house of St. Barnabas. St. Francis of Sales, who loved to call himself a Barnabite, invited the Congregation into his diocese, to establish colleges at Annecy and at Thonon; while the Barnabite Guerin was his coadjutor and later, having succeeded him in the See of Geneva, was conspicuous for the zeal with which he promoted his canonization. The Barnabites, who take a holy pride in the title of episcoporum adjutores, have constantly cultivated the meek and gentle spirit of St. Francis of Sales in their relations with ecclesiastical authorities, the diocesan clergy, and members of other religious orders. Though never very extensive, the spreading of the order in Europe began very soon after its foundation. Their chief theatres of action were in Italy, France, Savoy, Austria, and Bohemia.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII, at the solicitation of the Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem, sent Barnabite Fathers to Malta, and in 1610 Henry IV of France obtained their services in defence of Catholicism in Bearn, whence they spread to Paris and other parts of France. The Emperor Ferdinand II invited them into Austria, in 1627, to oppose the spread of Protestantism, and gave them the court parish of St. Michael, where a house was built for their accommodation. The order also possesses at Vienna the parish church of Maria-Hilf, a famous sanctuary erected in thanksgiving for Sobieski's deliverance of the city from the Turks in 1683. Belgium has recently proved a providential refuge for the order, those expelled from France by the Government of that country having established themselves at Brussels and in other parts of the neighbouring kingdom.

Foreign Missions

In 1718, when Clement XI sent Monsignor Mezzabarba to the Emperor of China to attempt a settlement of the famous question of the Chinese Rites, His Holiness attached five Barnabites to the special mission. No substantial result was obtained, but when the rest of the party left the country, one member of the order, Father Ferrari, remained in China, taking up his residence first at Peking and then at Canton, where he sowed the first seed of that work of the Holy Infancy with which the name of the French Bishop =46orbin-Janson is justly associated. From that time until 1738 the companions of Father Ferrari preached the Gospel in Cochin China, where =46ather Alessandro degli Alessandri was for sixteen years vicar Apostolic. The Holy See meanwhile desiring a regular Barnabite mission in Ava and Pegu, the order willingly assumed that duty, and the mission was maintained until 1832, when the inability to supply labourers for this field, the consequence of Napoleon's suppression of the religious orders necessitated its transfer to the Paris Society of Foreign Missions. An account of what the Barnabites accomplished in Ava and Pegu may be found in Cardinal Wiseman's translation (published by the Asiatic Society) of Sauzerman's "Religione del regno Birmano". The Regular Clerics of St. Paul also kept missionaries, for some time, in Scandinavia. Their missions are now established in Brazil.

Saints and other distinguished members of the Congregation

Besides its canonized Saints Anton Maria Zaccaria and Alexander Sauli, and Blessed Xavier M. Bianchi (d. 1815) who was known as the Thaumaturgus of Naples, the Barnabite Order glories in a number of Venerables, among whom have been several religious distinguished for their austere purity and taken to their reward while yet young. Upon the extraordinary graces, such as miracles and vision, undeniably vouchsafed to members of the order, it is not expedient here to insist; Alfonso Paleotti, however, who in 1591 succeeded his cousin, Cardinal Gabriel Paleotti, In the Archbishopric of Bologna, relates in his autobiography that when he was praying for light and help in the government of his archdiocese, a holy man who was commonly called il Vidente, on account of his gift of vision, told him, as a message form the Blessed Virgin, that he out to send for the Barnabites and make them penitenzieri, because they had a great devotion for her, were her faithful servants, and she would assist them in drawing souls to the practice of daily Communion.

Learning, the pursuit of which the Barnabites regard as a great preservative of religious observance has always been cultivated among them in all its branches. To cite only a few names, the order has been distinguished in theology by Rotarius, Pozzobonelli, and Maderni; in Biblical science by Corio and Vercellone; in ecclesiastical history by Tornielli, whose "Annales Sacri" are regarded as an introduction to those of Baronius; in liturgiology by Gavantus; in archaeology by Caronni, whose work receives praise in Eckel's "Doctina nummorum veterum"; Cortenova, who illustrated the antiquities of Friuli and Aquileia; Delle Torre, who restored the Forum Julii of Cividale; Ungarelli the Egyptologist, friend of Champollion and Rosellini, and interpreter of the Roman obelisk; and Benzi, who elucidated the inscription of Vercelli. Among the name of Barnabites who have been eminent in philosophy are those of Baranzano, the friend of Galileo and of Francis Bacon, who communicated to him first the theory of the "Novum Organum", of Cardinal Gerdil, and of Pini, the author of "Protologia"; among those eminent in physical and mathematical science, Frisi, Cavallezi, Denza, founder of the Italian Meteorological Society and first director of the Vatican Observatory, and Bertelli, the seismologist. To the Barnabite architect Binaghi is due the restoration of the Escorial towards the close of the sixteenth century, whilst the Barnabite Mazenta was the architect both of the Cathedral of Bologna and of the fortifications of Leghorn. To these name might be added those of many Barnabites who have become famous in literature, and the order has given to the Catholic Church more than fifty bishops and these six members of the Sacred College: Caddini, Fontana, Gerdil, Lambruschini, Bilio, and Graziello.

In 1856 Count Schouvaloff, a distinguished Russian convert, joined the Barnabite Congregation, and died in 1859. It was his ardent desire that his brethren might do something for the reunion of Christendom. With this object the order has founded an Association of Masses, and by the Brief "Apositum super Nobis", dated 30 April, 1872, Pius IX granted a plenary indulgence to all who should assist at the Mass for the reunion of Christendom to be celebrated once a month in the Chapel of the Barnabites at Paris. His Holiness, moreover, granted to the general of the order faculties for extending the like privilege to any other church in which a monthly Mass for the same intention should be said upon the day appointed by the ordinary. This privilege is freely extended by the general to all bishops who may desire it.

Sicco and Mosio, De Cleric, Reg. S. Pauli Cong. Et Parentibus Syonpsis (Milan, 1682); Barelli, Memorie dell' origine =8A della Congregazione dei Chierici Reg=8ABarnabiti (Bologna, 1703-07); Constitutiones Cleric. Reg. S. Pauli Decollati (Milan, 1579; Milan, 1617; Naples, 1829); Grazioli, Praestantium virorum qui in Congregatione S. Pauli vulgo Barnabitarum memoria nostra floruerunt (Bologna, 1751); Ungarelli, Bibliotheca Script. E Cong. Cleric. Reg. S. Pauli (Rome, 1836); Gabuzio, Hist. Cong. Cleric. Reg. S. Pauli (Rome, 1852); Colombo, Profili biografici di insigni Barnabiti (Lodi, 1871).

References

  1. Back to citation "Clerics Regular of Saint Paul (B./C.R.S.P.)".
  2. Back to citation occurrence 2.00 Back to citation occurrence 2.01 Back to citation occurrence 2.02 Back to citation occurrence 2.03 Back to citation occurrence 2.04 Back to citation occurrence 2.05 Back to citation occurrence 2.06 Back to citation occurrence 2.07 Back to citation occurrence 2.08 Back to citation occurrence 2.09 Tondini di Quarenghi, Cesario (1907). "Barnabites". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  3. Back to citation ""Barnabite Fathers", Barnabite Fathers USA". Archived from the original on 2014-10-09. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
  4. Back to citation occurrence 4.0 Back to citation occurrence 4.1 Schaff, Philip. "Barnabites", The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. I: Aachen - Basilians, p.488, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1951
  5. Back to citation Pope John Paul II. "Address of the Holy Father John Paul II to the Barnabites", Vatican website Archived August 12, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  6. Back to citation Glatz, Carol (13 October 2021). "Forced to flee Afghanistan, Catholic mission waits to start a 'new page'". National Catholic Reporter. Catholic News Service. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  7. Back to citation Giacinto Sigismondo Gerdil, Vie du bienheureux Alexandre Sauli, barnabite, évèque d'Alérie et de Pavie, (in French), Paris: C. Douniol, 1861.
  8. Back to citation "1918". newsaints.faithweb.com. Retrieved 2025-02-09.
  9. Back to citation "1924". newsaints.faithweb.com. Retrieved 2025-02-09.
  10. Back to citation "1941". newsaints.faithweb.com. Retrieved 2025-02-09.
  11. Back to citation "1624". newsaints.faithweb.com. Retrieved 2025-02-09.
  12. Back to citation "1732". newsaints.faithweb.com. Retrieved 2025-02-09.
  13. Back to citation "1771". newsaints.faithweb.com. Retrieved 2025-02-09.
  14. Back to citation "1850". newsaints.faithweb.com. Retrieved 2025-02-09.
  15. Back to citation "1853". newsaints.faithweb.com. Retrieved 2025-02-09.
  16. Back to citation "1982". newsaints.faithweb.com. Retrieved 2025-02-09.
  17. Back to citation "The Burmese Empire a Hundred Years Ago, as Described by Father Sangermano, with an Introduction and Notes by John Jardine". World Digital Library. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  18. Back to citation Ritzler, Remigius; Sefrin, Pirminus (1952). Hierarchia catholica medii et recentis aevi V (1667-1730). Patavii: Messagero di S. Antonio. pp. 21, 203 with note 4.
  19. Back to citation Ritzler, Remigius; Sefrin, Pirminus (1958). Hierarchia catholica medii et recentis aevi VI (1730-1799). Patavii: Messagero di S. Antonio. p. 32.
  20. Back to citation Remigius Ritzler; Pirminus Sefrin (1978). Hierarchia catholica Medii et recentioris aevi... A Pontificatu PII PP. IX (1846) usque ad Pontificatum Leonis PP. XIII (1903) (in Latin). Vol. VIII. Il Messaggero di S. Antonio. pp. 45, 49. Giacomo Martina, Pio IX: 1851–1866, Rome: Pontifical Gregorian University: Gregorian Biblical BookShop, 1986, pp. 321-330. Martin Bräuer, Handbuch der Kardinäle: 1846–2012, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter 2014, p. 78.
  21. Back to citation Giuseppe Baraldi, Notizia biografica sul cardinale Francesco Fontana, Modena: Soliani 1824.
  22. Back to citation Luigi Lambruschini, La mia nunziatura di Francia, ed. Pietro Pirri (Bologna: Zanichelli 1934). Luigi Manzini, Il Cardinale Luigi Lambruschini, (in Italian), Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana 1960.
  23. Back to citation Joannes Bellarinus, Doctrina sacri concilii tridentini et catechismi romani de sacramentis, (in Latin), Mediolani: ex typographia Pacifici Pontii 1600.
  24. Back to citation Luigi Maria Ungarelli, Bibliotheca scriptorum e congregatione clerr. regg. s. paulli, (in Latin), Volumen I (Roma: J. Salviucci, 1836), pp. 140-151. Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "John Bellarini". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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