Saint Paul of the Cross was an Italian Roman Catholic mystic, and founder of the Passionists. He was born on 3 January 1694 in the town of Ovada, in northern Italy.

His parents were Luca and Anna Maria Massari Danei. Paul was the second of sixteen children, six of whom survived infancy; and learned at an early age the reality of death and the uncertainty of life.

Paul experienced a conversion to a life of prayer at the age of 19. Influenced by "Treatise on the Love of God" by Francis de Sales, and the direction he received from priests of the Capuchin Order, it became his lifelong conviction that God is most easily found in the Passion of Christ.

He joined the army in 1715, but soon realized that the life of a soldier was not his calling. Hence, he returned to help in the family business.

At the age of 26, he had a series of prayer-experiences which made it clear to him that God was inviting him to form a community who would live an evangelical life and promote the love of God revealed in the Passion of Jesus. The community came to be known as the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ, or the Passionists. The members of the community were to live a penitential life, in solitude and poverty, teaching people in the easiest possible way how to meditate on the Passion of Jesus.

Paul’s first companion was his own brother, John Baptist. After a short course in pastoral theology, the brothers were ordained to the priesthood by Pope Benedict XIII on 7 June 1727, in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome. Paul was known as one of the most popular preachers of his day, both for his words and for his generous acts of mercy.

Paul died at the age of eighty-one on 18 October 1775, at the Retreat of Saints John and Paul. He was beatified on 1 October 1852 and canonized on 29 June 1867 by Pope Pius IX.

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