REGULAR CLERICS. - These are those religious societies of clerics which, founded from the beginning of the 16th century until about the end of the 18th, did not follow any of the monastic rules and devoted themselves to the most varied forms of the apostolate.
Their origin is due in good part to the ideals of reform of religious life, especially after the Council of Trent, to the need to provide for the needs of the Church, to the rise of Protestantism, and to the open passages in the West and East Indies. They exercise the apostolate in the most varied forms, ranging from teaching to preaching to the care of the sick. They have their own constitutions, the government is more centralized than in the Mendicant Orders, they do not devote to the divine Office the same time as monks; indeed several recite it only privately. As for precedence they come immediately after monks and before the religious Congregations of clerics (can. 491).
Bibliography3 works
Giuseppe Creusen
I. REGULAR CLERICS OF THE MOTHER OF GOD
Religious order founded at S. Maria della Rosa in Lucca on 3 May 1574 by St. John Leonardi (v.). The original title, Reformed Priests of the Most Holy Virgin, was later changed to Congregation of the Regular Clerics of the Blessed Virgin; the present one was established in 1614.
In order to have good direction in the life of the small family, the founder made use in the early days of the work of two Dominican religious: Fathers Francesco Bernardini and Benedetto Onesti, of the convent of S. Romano in Lucca.
In 1580 the small institution left the church of the Rosa and moved to that of S. Maria Corteorlandini, where, on 8 March 1583, canonical erection was completed through the work of the bishop, Mons. Alessandro Guidiocioni the elder. On 13 Oct. 1595 came the confirmation of the Holy See, and consequently exemption from the jurisdiction of the Ordinary. In 1621 it was raised by Gregory XV to the rank of religious Order, and two years later it was admitted to the enjoyment of the privileges and exemptions of the other religious Orders. By pontifical brief of 14 Jan. 1614, and at the wish of Card. Benedetto Giustiniani, protector of the Scolopi, the union of these with the Congregation of Leonardi had taken place; but the union was of short duration (until 6 March 1617), since between the two institutions there existed an incompatibility of ministry: the sons of Leonardi were unwilling to renounce the parochial ministry, and the Scolopi that of schools. In 1603 Card. Baronio was named protector of the Lucchese Congregation, of which he is regarded as a second founder, for having assisted and defended it in the most critical circumstances. He had Leonardi elected perpetual general, and the following year he had the first General Chapter assembled in Rome, in which were approved the Constitutions that he himself had already revised.
In 1601 Leonardi had obtained in Rome the church of S. Maria in Portico (later dedicated to S. Galla, demolished in 1935) at the foot of the Capitoline, a place then unhealthy and depopulated, offered to him by Card. Bartolomeo Cesi, who was its titular. Near this church, which was also a parish and connected with canons, he opened a house of his institution, where it remained until 1620, when it moved to the neighboring church of S. Maria in Campitelli, where the general house of the Order still has its seat today. Other houses were founded later: in Naples, on the riviera di Chiaia (S. Maria in Portico) and in the center of the city (S. Brigida a Toledo); in Vasto in the Abruzzi; at Genzano di Roma in 1841; in Monaco (Principality) in 1873; at La Spezia, around the year 1880; at Massa Marittima in 1897; at Fosciandora (Lucca) in 1903; at Candela (Foggia) in 1937; at Gallipoli (Lecce) in 1938; at S. Ferdinando di Puglia in 1946. In recent years three houses have been opened in Chile, in mission places according to the spirit of Leonardi, who in 1603, together with the Spaniard Mons. G. Batt. Vives, had laid the foundations of the institution of Propaganda Fide. Other attempts to open mission houses had occurred, at the beginning of the 18th century, with Fr. Domenico Perroni, who died at Canton (China) in 1729, where he had been sent as procurator general of Propaganda Fide, and in 1924 with the erection of a house in the diocese of Botucatu in Brazil. In Lucca the Order made an effective contribution to the movement of the Counter-Reformation. Among its distinguished religious are to be numbered the venerated Giovanni Battista Cioni (d. 1623) and Cesare Franciotti (d. 1627), the first companions of Leonardi; Ippolito Marracci (d. 1675), a prolific writer on Marian matters, his brother Ludovico (d. 1700), an Arabist; Costantino Roncaglia (d. 1737), a writer on moral theology; and Giandomenico Mansi (d. 1779), the well-known collector of the Sacred Councils.
The purpose of the Order is the exercise of the parochial and priestly ministry, in all that is the active life of the apostolate. The habit is the same as that worn by priests in the 16th century, namely: a black cassock without buttons, with one flap overlapping the other and fastened at the waist with a woolen sash; and a detachable collar, turned back over the collar of the cassock. The coat of arms is represented by the image of the Madonna Assumed into heaven. The Order today numbers about 100 religious in 8 houses.
Bibliography2 works
Francesco Ferraironi
II. MINOR REGULAR CLERICS (CARACCIOLINI)
They originated in 1588 in Naples through the initiative of Fr. Giovanni Adorno, of St. Francis Caracciolo and of Don Fabrizio Caracciolo of the princes of Marsiconovo, and were approved by Sixtus V on 9 April 1589.
The Constitutions differ from those of religious Orders with solemn vows for the following principal reasons: a) to the three religious vows is added that of not aspiring to ecclesiastical dignities, and the oath not to procure prelacies even within the Order; b) the religious are obliged to a turn of prayer before the Most Blessed Sacrament of one hour each during the day; c) where the number of priests and clerics permits, there is the obligation of the office in common, without chanting; d) likewise in turn each religious must perform an extraordinary penance. They devote themselves moreover to preaching, to the education of youth, to the assistance of the sick, of prisoners, etc.
After Adorno died three years later, the government of the Congregation was assumed by St. Francis Caracciolo, through whose work it spread especially in Italy and in Spain, reaching the number of 60 houses with about 2000 religious. It had missionaries in China, professors in universities, preachers, bishops and highly esteemed writers. With the passing of time it lost its former splendor to the point of almost dying out. Now it is in a promising recovery with eight houses and six parishes in Italy and in America.
Bibliography2 works
Florindo Monachesi
III. POOR REGULAR CLERICS OF THE MOTHER OF GOD OF THE PIOUS SCHOOLS (SCOLOPI)
Founded by St. Joseph Calasanz (v.) in 1617 in Rome, the Congregation was preceded by the establishment of popular primary schools made by the same Saint (in 1597, near the church of St. Dorothea, in Trastevere), which he called from the outset "Pious Schools," whence "Scolopi."
The Pious Schools, free for all, were the first true popular and primary schools in Italy and in Europe. They constituted a novelty for Rome, and soon became so crowded that after a few years it was necessary to move elsewhere: in 1612 they finally settled in the house attached to the church of St. Pantaleon, where the general curia of the Order still resides. Meanwhile Calasanz was becoming concerned about his collaborators in the school ministry, and there matured in him the purpose of establishing a religious Congregation, which, after various vicissitudes, was founded in 1617, and Gregory XV in 1622 approved its Constitutions with the brief Sacri apostolatus.
Despite the hostility of some, and some internal discord, the work gained credit and spread. First in Lazio, then in Liguria, in the Naples area, in Tuscany, in Sicily, in Sardinia, in Germany, in Poland, houses and schools were opened, while the founder was still alive. The activity of the new Congregation soon extended also to non-primary schools, by the will of Calasanz himself, who recognized no limits in teaching. The school of mathematics established in 1639 in Florence is well known, as is the friendship cultivated by the Scolopi with Galileo. Emulators and interested parties strove in every way to keep the educational action of the Scolopi restricted to the sphere of primary or elementary school. The founder resisted the attempted limitation unshakably, and this was one of the causes of a further embitterment against the Pious Schools.
In any case, it is certain that the Institute, so rapidly enlarged and at the same time poorly understood and opposed, underwent a very grave crisis, provoked from within by the lay brothers aspiring to the priesthood, and from without by a determined attack of competitors and enemies. This state of affairs caused, on the part of Urban VIII, the deposition of Calasanz from superior general, and then, on the part of Innocent X, a brief of March 16, 1646, which imposed the regression of the Order to a simple free union of various houses independent of one another, with full faculty for each to enter or leave it. The founder survived this suppression by two years; he died foretelling the resurrection of his work, which came about partially in 1656, when Alexander VII restored to the Institute the character of a religious Congregation with simple vows; and totally in 1669, when it was raised by Clement IX to the original state of religious Order with solemn vows.
Thereafter, the Order had a vigorous recovery, extending in Italy and abroad. So rapid a diffusion was accompanied step by step by the ever-growing progress of the literary and scientific movement, which had its cradle in the studentate of Chieti, whence, under the auspices of Fr. Morelli, the only glorious survivor of the so-called Galileans, it radiated to the whole Order, in the last part of the seventeenth century, chiefly through the work of Fr. Pirroni, one of the most enlightened men who have governed the Order (1677-85).
In the second half of the 18th century a period of maximum reflowering began for the Scolopi in the field of letters and sciences, combined with a notable increase in houses and provinces. In many places they did not limit their work to schools, but also took on the government of colleges and seminaries, following the example of their founder, who accepted from Cardinal Michelangelo Tonti the task of establishing and directing the Nazarene College of Rome, opened in 1630. The Scolopi also devoted themselves to the conversion of heretics in Bohemia, in Moravia, and to missions. The 18th century was the golden century of the Pious Schools, which in 1784 counted in Europe as many as 218 houses and 15 provinces. Many Scolopi, especially in Italy, taught in universities. In Florence the Ximenian Observatory became famous, and increased its fame throughout the 19th century.
The regalist tendencies and the revolutionary movements of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries had a sinister influence on the Scolopi who, besides remaining divided into three practically separate parts, in some regions were left exhausted; and the Italian Pious Schools suffered much from the suppression of religious Orders in the second half of the last century. In 1904 Pope Pius X restored hierarchical unity to the whole Order, which had been broken by the creation in 1804 of the vicariate of Spain.
Religious men illustrious for holiness were, besides Calasanz (v.), St. Pompilio M. Pirrotti (v.), the venerable Landriani and Casani, whose cause of beatification is in progress. Many distinguished themselves in the sciences, letters and arts.
The Scolopi currently count 140 houses with 2300 religious; 55,000 are the pupils educated in their colleges.
Bibliography4 works
Lecdeario Picanyol
BAREFOOT CLERICS OF THE MOST HOLY CROSS AND PASSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST (PASSIONISTS). - A clerical congregation with simple perpetual vows, founded by St. Paul of the Cross (v.) in 1720, in which, besides the three vows common to all other institutes, a fourth is taken, that of promoting devotion to the Passion of Christ among the faithful. They wear a tunic of rough, heavy black woolen cloth, with a leather belt, from which the rosary hangs on the left, and a cloak of the same cloth, reaching down to the knee. They have sandals and the ecclesiastical hat. Under the left shoulder, on the tunic and on the cloak, they wear an emblem in the shape of a heart, surmounted by the cross, with the inscription JESÙ XVI PASSIO and the three nails of the Crucifixion, in white on a black background. The lay brothers, to distinguish them from the clerics and priests, wear it on the tunic only.
In 1725 St. Paul of the Cross received from Benedict XIII the faculty to gather companions, and on Sept. 14, 1737, he opened the first retreat on Monte Argentario, near Grosseto. In 1741 Benedict XIV approved the rules and the few religious took their vows. Thus the first canonical community was formed, with St. Paul as superior.
The Institute received the solemn sanction of Clement XIV with the bull Supremi Apostolatus, of Nov. 16, 1769. The rules of the Passionists are marked by a wholly particular spirit of penance and prayer. Poverty is evident in everything: in the retreats, in the cells, in the objects of use. Nothing may be possessed either privately or in common, with the exception of the house and a limited adjoining plot of land, to be cultivated as garden, meadow and woodland. Fixed revenues and perpetual obligations of Masses are forbidden. They live on alms, and by way of alms they receive whatever is offered to them for the ministry of preaching. They dwell in solitude, far from inhabited places; for this reason their houses are called "retreats." They sleep clothed on straw pallets and rise at night for the recitation of Matins. Their principal observance is that of the choir, in which all must take part, both by day and by night: priests, clerics and lay brothers: the latter to recite the crown of the Lord (of 33 Pater noster) and other prayers proper to them. Besides the choral psalmody, there are two hours of mental prayer each day, one in the morning and one in the evening. A lofty and elegant style is expressly forbidden in preaching; rather one must speak with simple and clear language to instruct the faithful in the truths of the faith and in the observance of the divine law, at the same time promoting the devout and assiduous remembrance of the Passion of Jesus Christ. It is not permitted to preach Lenten courses, and the labors of the apostolate must be alternated with dwelling in solitude, to restore the strength of the spirit.
The Congregation is governed by the superior general, assisted by four consultors and the procurator, elected for a six-year term. The religious province is governed by the provincial superior, assisted by two consultors elected every three years in the provincial Chapters. None of the superiors may be confirmed more than once in the same office.
At first the Congregation encountered grave difficulties, yet it was able to establish itself and prosper happily. At the death of the founder (1775) it counted 12 houses, divided into two provinces, with about 200 religious. And although in the early times the austerity of life was truly extraordinary, not a few men illustrious for nobility and learning belonged to it. The French Revolution, with its repercussions also in Italy, and the Napoleonic suppression (1810) slowed its development; but having returned to Rome in 1814, Pius VII wished to re-establish the religious Orders, and by a letter of Card. Pacca, Secretary of State, dated June 29, 1814, he granted the Passionists the first permission to return to their retreats and resume the regular observance. During the generalate of Fr. Antonio di S. Giacomo (1839-62), the Congregation spread to England, Belgium, France, America and Australia. At present (1949) it counts 18 provinces, with 165 houses and 3300 professed religious.
Many Passionists were distinguished for holiness of life: besides the founder, there are remembered St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows (v.), Bl. Vincenzo Maria Strambi (v.), and those servants of God whose cause of beatification is in progress: Ven. Fr. Giovanni Battista di S. Michele Arcangelo, brother of the holy founder (d. 1765), Ven. Domenico della Madre di Dio (d. 1849), Fr. Lorenzo di S. Francesco Saverio (d. 1856), Br. Galileo Nicolini, novice (d. 1897), Fr. Carlo di S. Andrea (d. 1893), Br. Pio di S. Luigi (d. 1889), Fr. Bernardo Maria di Gesù (d. 1911), Fr. Giovanni dello Spirito Santo (d. 1905).
As many as 25 bishops, 12 of them missionaries in Bulgaria, and
