Barnabites

The Barnabites, or Clerics Regular of Saint Paul (Latin: Clerici Regulares Sancti Pauli, abbr. B.) is a Roman Catholic order.

Establishment of the Order

It was founded in 1530 by three Italian noblemen: St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria (S. Antonio Maria Zaccaria), Venerable Barthalomew Ferrari (Bartolomeo Ferrari), and Venerable James Morigia (Giacomo Antonio Morigia), and approved by Pope Clement VII in the brief Vota per quae vos in 1533. Later approvals gave it the status of an order, but it is still normally referred to as a congregation. Both the date and the vocation place it among the orders associated with the Counter-Reformation.

The popular name Barnabites came naturally to the Congregation through its association with the church of St. Barnabas in Milan, which came into its possession within the earliest years of the foundation of the institute, which was at first peculiarly Milanese. St. Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, presided, in 1579, as Cardinal Protector, over the commission which determined once for all the constitution of the order, and the general chapters were regularly held at Milan until the reign of Pope Alexander VII (1655-67), who ordered them to convene in Rome. Pope Innocent XI (1676-89), however, finally decreed that the general chapters of the Barnabites should assemble in Rome and Milan alternately. These assemblies of the provincials were held every three years for the election of a new general, whose term of office was limited to that...
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