MONACI DISAN PAOLO PRIMO EREMITA

MONKS OF ST PAUL THE FIRST HERMIT. — They took their name from St Paul of Thebes the first hermit, who lived in Egypt in the 3rd–4th centuries, but their origin goes back to the hermits living in Hungary (Pannonia), founded at the beginning of the 13th century (1215) by Bartolomew, bishop of Pécs (Quinque Ecclesiae), at Patach on Mount St James. Another branch arose in northern Hungary, founded by Eusebius, canon of Strigonia. The two branches united in 1250 under the leadership of Eusebius, “co-founder and organiser”. They obtained papal approval in 1309 from Clement V.
In 1340 the congregation of hermits living along the Danube and the Rhine, in Switzerland and Germany, joined the Order. Towards the end of the 15th century the Portuguese Hermits of St Paul adhered, composed of two branches: one founded by Benedict the Roman in the 12th century and the other by Mendo Gomez in 1420; but they separated in the 16th century. There also existed in France a Pauline congregation founded by Callier (17th century), whose members were called Brothers of Death. The Order spread in Hungary and neighbouring countries, where in the 14th and 15th centuries it had reached great importance: in Poland with the celebrated shrine of the wonder-working “Black Madonna” of Częstochowa, founded in 1382, in Prussia and in Lithuania. The purpose of the Order at the beginning 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 their own churches. Among its members there were numerous bishops, writers and scientists. In Hungary there distinguished itself, among others, George Martinuzzi Ustinovics, bishop and cardinal, intrepid champion of Hungarian independence; in Poland Fr Augustine Kordecki, defender of the Jasna Góra sanctuary and of the fatherland in 1655; in Croatia Fr Martin Borkovics, pater patriae. The absolutism of the rulers in the 18th and 19th centuries almost annihilated the Order in the Austrian Empire, in Germany, in Portugal, etc. After the persecution in Poland only a few convinced members survived, who after the First World War took up new life.