St. Paul of the Cross was born on 3rd January 1694 in Ovada, Italy. Nurtured by a Christian family home and active in his local Church his prayer life developed rapidly in his teens. At 26 he left home to become a hermit and two years later was experiencing the heights of the prayer of mystical union.

He believed that the troubles of the world were a result of the forgetting of the Passion of Jesus. He wanted all to keep alive the Memory of the Sufferings of the Crucified One. This, he believed, began in prayer at the foot of the Cross.

Ordained a priest at 33 years of age he lived his beliefs. For the next 45 years he preached missions bringing the message of the Cross and the Love of the Crucified Jesus to people. Miracles and conversions abounded. Many learned to pray and to live a true Christian life.

All his life he struggled to found a Religious Community who would accept his ideals and carry on his work. When he was 47 his first followers - the Passionists - appeared on the streets of Italy. Over the next thirty years he founded 12 houses with 176 religious priests and brothers. He died at the age of 81. Since then, his followers, including Blessed Charles of Mount Argus, have continued the work of keeping alive the Memory of Christ Crucified.