St. Paul of the Cross 1694-1775 “Tell me the landscape on which
you live and I’ll tell you who you are.” Ortega y Gasset In 1714
a young northern Italian, Paolo Danei, had a striking experience
of God. It happened during an ordinary sermon in an ordinary
church, preached by an unknown parish priest. A sense of God and
a desire to serve him filled his heart. Over the years, the
experience grew, and it centered on the Passion of Jesus Christ.
From the sermon he heard in church, the young man gained a life-
long respect for preaching. In his early years he taught
catechism in churches near his home; later he became a powerful
preacher of God’s word. In 1715, responding to a call for help
from the pope, Paul left his work helping his father to join a
crusade against the Turks who were threatening the Venetian
Republic, but he soon realized that God wasn’t calling him to be
a soldier. There was something else for him to do, and so he
returned to help in the family business. “My Father Was a Poor
Tobacconist” His fa