Monks of Saint Paul the First Hermit

MONKS OF SAINT PAUL THE FIRST HERMIT. – They took their designation from St Paul of Thebes the first hermit, who lived in Egypt in the 3rd–4th century, but their origin goes back to the hermits living in Hungary (Pannonia), founded at the beginning of the 13th century (1215) by Bartolomeo, bishop of Pecs (Five Churches), at Patach on Mount St James. Another branch arose in northern Hungary, founded by Eusebio, canon of Strigonia. The two branches united in 1250 under the direction of Eusebio, “co-founder and organizer.” They obtained papal approval in 1309 from Clement V.
In 1340 the Congregation of the Hermits living along the Danube and the Rhine, in Switzerland and Germany, joined the Order. Toward the end of the 15th century, the Portuguese Pauline Hermits also joined; they too consisted of two branches: one founded by Benedetto Romano in the 12th century and the other by Mendo Gomez in 1420; but in the 16th century they separated. There was also in France a Pauline Congregation founded by Callier (17th century), whose members were called “brothers of death.” The Order spread throughout Hungary and the neighboring countries, where in the 14th and 15th centuries it had achieved great importance: in Poland, with the celebrated shrine of the thaumaturgical “Black Madonna” of Czestochowa, founded in 1382; in Prussia and in Lithuania. At the beginning, the purpose of the Order was exclusively contemplative; from the 16th century, the Holy See entrusted it with charitable and missionary works as well as religious instruction. At present, the priestly ministry is exercised in its own churches. Among its members were numerous bishops, writers, and scientists. In Hungary, among others, Giorgio Martinuzzi Ulisinovica distinguished himself, bishop and cardinal, an intrepid fighter for Hungarian independence; in Poland, Fr Agostino Kordecki, defender of the shrine of Jasna Gora and of the fatherland in 1655; in Croatia, Fr Martino Borkowica, pater patriae. The absolutism of the sovereigns in the 18th and 19th centuries almost annihilated the Order in the Austrian Empire, Germany, Portugal, etc. After the persecution in Poland, a few convents survived and, after the First World War, took on new life.