At Olesa de Montserrat in the district of Barcelona in Spain, Saint Paula Montal Fornés of Saint Joseph Calasanz, virgin, who founded the Institute of the Daughters of Mary of the Pious Schools.
Lifespan: 1799–1889
Beatified: 18 April 1993 by Pope John Paul II
Canonized: 25 November 2001 by Pope John Paul II, Rome
Memoria liturgica: 26 February
To save the family by educating girls in the holy fear of God
At Arenys de Mar (Barcelona), a coastal city open to the sea, cosmopolitan and industrial, she was born to life on 11 October 1799, and that same afternoon to the life of grace. She was formed in a simple and deeply Christian family environment. She took part in the spiritual life of her parish and was distinguished by her love for the Virgin Mary.
From the age of ten she knew the hardship of work, helping her mother — a widow with five children, of whom Paula was the eldest. In this period, from her own experience, she perceived that girls, young women, and women generally had scarce access to education and culture, and she felt called by God to take up this task.
Figueras (Gerona) was her destination — a frontier city on the border with France and a military stronghold with its famous citadel. Accompanied by her closest friend Inés Busquets, in 1829 she moved to the capital of the Ampurdán to open the first school for girls, with broad educational programmes far surpassing the prevailing pedagogical system for children. It was a new kind of school. At Figueras she began, exclusively, her educational apostolate with girls. There a new charism was born in the Church: an Apostolic Work directed toward the full human and Christian education of girls and young women, toward the education of woman, in order to save families and transform society. Her followers would be distinguished by their profession of a fourth vow of teaching.
Sabadell (Barcelona) was the city where her educational work was grafted into the Piarist tradition. We know that from at least 1837 she felt herself wholly identified with the charism of Saint Joseph Calasanz and wished to live according to Calasanzian spirituality and rule. Driven by this aim, after founding the second school in her home town (Arenys de Mar, 1842) — where she came into direct contact with the Piarist Fathers of Mataró — she opened a third school at Sabadell in 1846. Providential was the presence of the Piarist Fathers Jacinto Felíu and Agustín Casanovas at the college of Sabadell. With their guidance and assistance, she was able, in a short time, to secure the Piarist canonical structure for her nascent Congregation. On 2 February 1847 she made her profession as a Daughter of Mary of the Pious Schools, together with her first three companions: Inés Busquets, Felicia Clavell, and Francisca de Domingo. At the General Chapter held at Sabadell on 14 March 1847, she was elected neither superior general nor assistant general.
During the period 1829–1859 she carried out an intense apostolate, personally founding seven schools: Figueras (1829), Arenys de Mar (1842), Sabadell (1846), Igualada (1849), Vendrell (1850), Masnou (1852), and Olesa de Montserrat (1859). She inspired and assisted the founding of four more: Gerona (1853), Blanes (1854), Barcelona (1857), and Sóller (1857). She was also the formator of the first 130 sisters of the Congregation, which was passing through a period of great vital activity and prophetic witness.
Olesa de Montserrat (Barcelona), 1859: her last personal foundation. A small and poor village at the foot of the Monastery of Our Lady of Montserrat, for whom she had always felt deep devotion. It was her most cherished foundation, where she remained until her death (15 December 1859 – 26 February 1889). These were thirty years of grace for the girls and young women of Olesa, who benefited from her Christian witness and her fruitful teaching; for the city of Olesa de Montserrat, enriched by the example of a life wholly dedicated and holy — “Everyone loved and venerated her …”; and for the Piarist Congregation: a total yes to God, Piarist pedagogy in action, and the lived virtues that must characterize the Piarist educator — the sunset of a way into God.