From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   February 26th - Saint Paula of St. Joseph of Calasanz   
      
   Grew up in a large and pious family in a Spanish fishing village. When   
   Paula's   
   father died she was only 10 years old. She helped her mother to raise the   
   family, working as a lace-maker and seamstress, and expended herself to help   
   the   
   other children of the parish as well. Paula pursued the vocation of a single   
   lay   
   woman, privately devoted to God, for many years of her adult life. At the   
   age of   
   thirty, with the help of a friend, she opened a school for girls in Gerona,   
   Spain. Her ideal was to provide not only a good education but a strong moral   
   foundation as well. The school prospered, and she found herself able to   
   found a   
   women's college in 1842 and another school in 1846. She then entered   
   religious   
   life by founding the Daughters of Mary (Pious School Sisters) and taking at   
   that   
   time the name Paula of Saint Joseph of Calasanz. The religious congregation   
   was   
   to lead and staff the schools of her founding.   
      
   St Paula had a vision of hope and love for the children she served, and led   
   her   
   daughters forward under the motto "Piety and Letters" the slogan of St   
   Joseph of   
   Calasanz. Her vision of hope and possibility for women and all children is   
   as   
   vibrant and important today as it was when she first founded her   
   congregation.   
   Today there are more than 800 Sisters of the Pious Schools, teaching on four   
   continents. The 112 communities of the order educate over 30,000 students,   
   in 19   
   nations.   
      
      
   Additional Information   
   February 26th - St. Paula of Saint Joseph of Calasanz   
   (Also known as Paula Montal Fornes; Paula Montal; Paola Montal; Paola Montal   
   Forne)   
      
   Daughter of Ramon and Vicenta Fornes Montal. Raised in a large and pious   
   family   
   in a small seaside village. Her father died when Paula was 10 years old. She   
   worked as a seamstress and lace-maker, and helped raise her siblings, then   
   helped in her parish with other children.   
      
   At age thirty, still single and devoting herself privately to God, she and   
   her   
   friend Inez Busquets opened a school in Gerona to provide a good education   
   mixed   
   with spiritual guidance. The school was such a success that she was able to   
   found a college in May 1842, and another school in 1846. To staff and manage   
   the   
   schools, she founded the Daughters of Mary (Pious School Sisters) on 2   
   February   
   1847, and took the name Paula of Saint Joseph of Calasanz. Paula served as   
   its   
   leader, and they received papal approval from Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1860.   
   These schools have now spread to four continents.   
      
   Born 11 October 1799 at Arenys de Mar, near Barcelona, Spain   
   Died 26 February 1889 at Olesa de Montserrat of natural causes   
   Beatified 18 April 1993 by Pope John Paul II at Rome   
   Canonized 25 November 2001 by Pope John Paul II   
      
   <><><><>   
   Whoever humbleth himself shall be exalted. -Lk. 14:11   
      
   "Here is one of the best means to acquire humility: fix well in mind this   
   maxim:   
   One is as much as he is in the sight of God, and no more"   
   --Thomas a Kempis   
      
   St. Francis made a beginning of sanctity by trampling underfoot human   
   respect;   
   for he had thoroughly penetrated the truth of this holy maxim which he often   
   revolved in his mind.   
      
   (Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints". February - Humility)   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   The fear of the Lord is the lesson of wisdom: and humility goeth before   
   glory.   
   (Proverbs 15:33)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Faithful Cross! above all other,   
   One and only noble Tree!   
   None in foliage, none in blossom,   
   None in fruit thy peers may be;   
   Sweetest Wood and Sweetest Iron!   
   Sweetest Weight is hung on thee.   
   Bend thy boughs, O Tree of glory!   
   Thy relaxing sinews bend;   
   For awhile the ancient rigor,   
   That thy birth bestowed, suspend;   
   And the King of heavenly beauty   
   On thy bosom gently tend!   
   Thou alone wast counted worthy   
   This world's ransom to uphold   
   For a shipwrecked race preparing   
   Harbor, like the Ark of old;   
   With the sacred Blood anointed   
   From the smitten Lamb that rolled.   
   Roman Breviary, Invention and Exaltation of the Cross, Crux fidelis inter   
   omnes at Laods. (From hymn Pange Lingua Gloriosi) (Tr. Neale) (Fortonatos,   
   6th cent.)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)