HISTORY - Saint Joseph Calasanz (Peralta del Sal 1557 - Rome 1648)

An important unpublished and beautiful autograph document by the founder of the order of Clerics Regular Poor of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools (the Piarists), who was proclaimed a saint by Clement XIII in 1767. Saint Joseph Calasanz (José de Calasanz), an Aragonese priest, was the first religious in Europe to establish free schools for poor children. The first Piarist school was established in two rooms adjacent to the sacristy of the church of Santa Dorotea in Trastevere in Rome in 1597. “Indulgenze e gratie concesse dalla Santità de Nostro Signor Papa Paolo V° alle corone, Rossarii, croce, medaglie et Imagine benedette ad Instanza della Illustrissima et exellentissima Donna Lucrezia Lignani Gatinaris, Contessa di Castro, Duchessa di Taurisano et Ambasciatrice della Maestà Cattolica”. This is followed by a series of 11 points in which the obligations to obtain these indulgences and graces are specified. Francesco Ruiz de Castro, count of Lemos: (1624-1662). Husband of Lucrezia Gattinara Duchess of Castro (1595-1624). He was lieutenant of the Viceroy of Naples and held important political positions. At the bottom of the first page is a first authentication dated 1748, signed by Silvestro Merani Papal sacrist and Bishop of Porphyreone (with a red seal). On the following page, the autograph document is authenticated by "Joannes Didacus à Madre Dei, Vicar" of the Piarist Order. Dated 7 February 1748 with a beautiful paper seal of the Piarist Order.