Paula Montal Fornés

Life & Legacy

Paula Montal Fornés (religious name: Paula of Saint Joseph Calasanz; 11 October 1799 – 26 February 1889) was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the foundress of the Sisters of the Pious Schools. Montal Fornés dedicated her religious career to serving as an educator in Barcelona where she founded schools for people in the area. The death of her father when she was ten forced her to help her mother raise her siblings though was free to pursue her religious inclinations once this was achieved; she and a close friend began setting up a series of schools before formalizing her idea for the establishment of a religious congregation that would be based on education and the establishment of additional schools nationwide.
Montal Fornés' cause for sainthood opened several decades after her death in the 1950s after being titled as a Servant of God; confirmation of her heroic virtue in 1988 saw her named as Venerable. Pope John Paul II beatified the late religious on 18 April 1993 and later canonized her on 25 November 2001.