FATHER FRANK’S LOG: 26th OCTOBER – 2nd NOVEMBER 2025
Brother Conor had an unexpected opportunity to go to Rome this week. One of our English Passionists was taking a group on pilgrimage, not as pilgrims of hope to do the holy doors in this jubilee year of hope, as most pilgrims to Rome would be doing, but as pilgrims to those places in Rome connected to the founder of the Passionists, St Paul of the Cross. The opportunity for Brother Conor arose because another Passionist who was to assist on the pilgrimage had to pull out and Brother Conor was asked if he could take his place, which he was very happy to do. It is a particularly appropriate time to make this pilgrimage as we have just celebrated the 250th anniversary of the death of St Paul of the Cross. He died on 18th October 1775. I have recently been recalling in this log, my own entry into the Passionists 50 years ago, just a couple of weeks before the 200th anniversary of the founder’s death, and so, at the very beginning of my Passionist journey, I was able to participate in a number of events that helped to steep me in the life and death of this great saint.
I don’t know what Brother Conor’s itinerary will be, but from my own time studying in Rome back in 1982/83, I was imagining the places he would be likely to visit. The first would probably be the Quirinal Palace. At the infant stages of the founding of the congregation, St Paul of the Cross decided to travel to Rome to get permission from the pope to gather companions. He was very young and naïve at the time. On the journey his ship was quarantined for a few days at the port of Civitavecchia, north of Rome. From there Paul could see a mountainside rising up out of the sea at a place called Monte Argentario, and he resolved to found his first Passionist monastery there, which he did a number of years later. Resuming the journey to Rome he went to the Quirinal Palace where the pope resided at the time, but he had made no appointment. The Swiss Guard took him for a beggar and threw him out. He was a bit despondent but, from the piazza outside the palace, he could look down the hill and see the dome of the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. He headed down to the basilica and prayed in a side-chapel there before a beautiful icon of Our Lady. This same side-chapel would become famous in recent times as a place where the late Pope Francis went often to pray, and indeed he is buried very close to that same icon. This was a significant moment as, until then, Paul had been going to call his new congregation The Poor of Jesus, but as he prayed there that day, he was inspired by Our Lady to call us The Passionists and to focus the charism on keeping alive the memory of Christ’s Passion as a work of infinite love. No doubt, Brother Conor will visit there too.
Another site he may visit is a church on the Coelian Hill popularly known as the Navicella because of the boat-shaped fountain outside. Hearing that the pope was going to be visiting that church, Paul went there to meet him, and at last received permission to gather companions. The congregation took off from there. Paul gathered companions; travelled extensively; opened a number of monasteries (or Retreats as he called them); preached many missions, especially in the poorest of places – the Passion of Christ is written on the foreheads of the poor, he said – taught people of all kinds a simple method of meditating on the Passion; wrote hundreds, if not thousands of letters giving spiritual guidance, and much more besides. His last mission, when he was very frail, was at the beautiful Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere on the banks of the Tiber. Both the church and the piazza were packed with people wanting to hear the final sermon of this renowned preacher of the Passion - another venue for Brother Conor, I’m sure. Paul ended his days in the Retreat of Saints John & Paul in the heart of Rome, now the mother house of the Passionists throughout the world, and where Brother Conor will in fact be staying. For the last couple of years, Paul was bedridden and confined to a small room on the ground floor. In that room there is an alcove with an altar. He would be helped to that altar each day to celebrate Mass. When I was living there during my diaconate year, I had the great privilege of going to that room frequently to practice celebrating Mass, something that moved me very deeply. Paul died in that room with some of the brethren gathered around his bed. In his final hours a cross was held before him and the Gospel of the Passion was read to him. In his final words he said that if he had to do it all again, he would preach only one thing, and that would be the mercy of God, the mercy that flows from the Sacred Passion, and from the Cross of Christ, that greatest and most overwhelming expression of God’s love for us. If we really believe that, we are truly blessed.
As ever, protect yourself, your loved ones and others, and protect Christ in your lives.
Brother Conor had an unexpected opportunity to go to Rome this week. One of our English Passionists was taking a group on pilgrimage, not as pilgrims of hope to do the holy doors in this jubilee year of hope, as most pilgrims to Rome would be doing, but as pilgrims to those places in Rome connected to the founder of the Passionists, St Paul of the Cross. The opportunity for Brother Conor arose because another Passionist who was to assist on the pilgrimage had to pull out and Brother Conor was asked if he could take his place, which he was very happy to do. It is a particularly appropriate time to make this pilgrimage as we have just celebrated the 250th anniversary of the death of St Paul of the Cross. He died on 18th October 1775. I have recently been recalling in this log, my own entry into the Passionists 50 years ago, just a couple of weeks before the 200th anniversary of the founder’s death, and so, at the very beginning of my Passionist journey, I was able to participate in a number of events that helped to steep me in the life and death of this great saint.
I don’t know what Brother Conor’s itinerary will be, but from my own time studying in Rome back in 1982/83, I was imagining the places he would be likely to visit. The first would probably be the Quirinal Palace. At the infant stages of the founding of the congregation, St Paul of the Cross decided to travel to Rome to get permission from the pope to gather companions. He was very young and naïve at the time. On the journey his ship was quarantined for a few days at the port of Civitavecchia, north of Rome. From there Paul could see a mountainside rising up out of the sea at a place called Monte Argentario, and he resolved to found his first Passionist monastery there, which he did a number of years later. Resuming the journey to Rome he went to the Quirinal Palace where the pope resided at the time, but he had made no appointment. The Swiss Guard took him for a beggar and threw him out. He was a bit despondent but, from the piazza outside the palace, he could look down the hill and see the dome of the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. He headed down to the basilica and prayed in a side-chapel there before a beautiful icon of Our Lady. This same side-chapel would become famous in recent times as a place where the late Pope Francis went often to pray, and indeed he is buried very close to that same icon. This was a significant moment as, until then, Paul had been going to call his new congregation The Poor of Jesus, but as he prayed there that day, he was inspired by Our Lady to call us The Passionists and to focus the charism on keeping alive the memory of Christ’s Passion as a work of infinite love. No doubt, Brother Conor will visit there too.
Another site he may visit is a church on the Coelian Hill popularly known as the Navicella because of the boat-shaped fountain outside. Hearing that the pope was going to be visiting that church, Paul went there to meet him, and at last received permission to gather companions. The congregation took off from there. Paul gathered companions; travelled extensively; opened a number of monasteries (or Retreats as he called them); preached many missions, especially in the poorest of places – the Passion of Christ is written on the foreheads of the poor, he said – taught people of all kinds a simple method of meditating on the Passion; wrote hundreds, if not thousands of letters giving spiritual guidance, and much more besides. His last mission, when he was very frail, was at the beautiful Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere on the banks of the Tiber. Both the church and the piazza were packed with people wanting to hear the final sermon of this renowned preacher of the Passion - another venue for Brother Conor, I’m sure. Paul ended his days in the Retreat of Saints John & Paul in the heart of Rome, now the mother house of the Passionists throughout the world, and where Brother Conor will in fact be staying. For the last couple of years, Paul was bedridden and confined to a small room on the ground floor. In that room there is an alcove with an altar. He would be helped to that altar each day to celebrate Mass. When I was living there during my diaconate year, I had the great privilege of going to that room frequently to practice celebrating Mass, something that moved me very deeply. Paul died in that room with some of the brethren gathered around his bed. In his final hours a cross was held before him and the Gospel of the Passion was read to him. In his final words he said that if he had to do it all again, he would preach only one thing, and that would be the mercy of God, the mercy that flows from the Sacred Passion, and from the Cross of Christ, that greatest and most overwhelming expression of God’s love for us. If we really believe that, we are truly blessed.
As ever, protect yourself, your loved ones and others, and protect Christ in your lives.
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