It's the Feast of
St. Joseph Calasanctius,
3rd Class, with the color of
White. In this episode: the meditation: "The Priest in the Confessional", today's news from the Church: "In Cusco, Pachamama Precedes Leo XIV", a preview of the Sermon: "Lessons from the Good Samaritan", and today's thought from the Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
Have feedback or questions about the DD or our other shows?
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Sources Used Today:
- "The Priest in the Confessional" — From Trinity Sunday to the Assumption
- "In Cusco, Pachamama Precedes Leo XIV" (FSSPX.news)
- "Lessons from the Good Samaritan" (SSPX Sermons)
- The Spiritual Life — Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (Angelus Press)
Please support our new project, the Archbishop Lefebvre Biography Audiobook:
Saint Joseph Calasanctius discovered his life's work almost by accident.
He was born in 1557 in Aragon, Spain, into a respected family. Intelligent and well educated, Joseph studied philosophy, theology, and law before becoming a priest. His abilities seemed to point toward a comfortable Church career, and eventually he traveled to Rome hoping to advance his position.
Then he started walking through the poorer neighborhoods.
What he saw changed everything.
Rome was filled with children whose families simply couldn't afford an education. Many spent their days working, begging, or roaming the streets. Education was largely a privilege of families who could pay for it.
Joseph began teaching some of them.
Then more showed up.
And more.
Before long, what had started as a small act of charity became something much bigger. In 1597, Joseph opened a free school for poor children in the parish of Santa Dorotea in Trastevere. It is often described as the first free public school in Europe.
His idea sounds completely normal today.
At the time, it was radical.
Joseph believed poor children deserved serious education, not simply enough instruction to keep them out of trouble. They learned reading, writing, arithmetic, religion, and practical subjects that could actually help them build a future.
Eventually he founded the Piarists, formally the Clerks Regular of the Poor Schools of the Mother of God, a religious order dedicated specifically to educating children.
And then everything nearly collapsed.
Joseph was a gifted educator, but administration brought enormous problems. Internal disputes, financial troubles, and serious misconduct by some members of the order eventually reached Rome. Joseph, already an old man, was removed from leadership. The Piarists were stripped of their status as a religious order, and the work he had spent decades building seemed finished.
Imagine being in your eighties and watching your life's work dismantled around you.
Joseph didn't leave.
He didn't become bitter.
He simply continued serving the children and trusted that the work belonged to God.
He died in 1648 at ninety years old without seeing the Piarists fully restored.
Eight years later, the congregation was revived.
Today, Piarist schools continue educating young people around the world.
There's something wonderfully appropriate about Joseph's story. He spent his life teaching children that failure wasn't the end of their future, and then had to live that lesson himself.
His rooms and the school connected with his work can still be visited at San Pantaleo in Rome, where his relics are venerated.
Saint Joseph Calasanctius, patient teacher and father of the poor, pray for us.
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What is the SSPX Podcast?
The SSPX Podcast is produced by Angelus Press, which has as its mission the fortification of traditional Catholics so that they can defend the Faith, and reaching out to those who have not yet found Tradition.
What is the SSPX?
The main goal of the Society of Saint Pius X is to preserve the Catholic Faith in its fullness and purity, to teach its truths, and to diffuse its virtues, especially through the Roman Catholic priesthood.
Authentic spiritual life, the sacraments, and the traditional liturgy are its primary means of bringing this life of grace to souls.
Although the traditional Latin Mass is the most visible and public expression of the work of the Society, we are committed to defending Catholic Tradition in its entirety: all of Catholic doctrine and morals as the Church has always defended them. What people need is the Catholic Faith, without compromise, with all the truth and beauty which accompanies it.
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