Piarists

The Chierici Regolari della Madre di Dio della Scuole Pie (Scolopi or Piarists) are one of a number of groups of clerics which arose in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries who were dedicated to many forms of apostolic work and evangelization. The groups arose out of a spirit or reform and a desire to return to what they saw as an original form of the apostolate. These were not religious orders in the sense that they did not live according to a specific rule. The first group to form was the Teatini (1524); the last was the Mariani (1671).

Giuseppe Calasanzio founded his first scuole pie in 1597 in Rome. The Scolopi were founded in 1617 as an amalgam of two existing groups, one founded earlier by Giuseppe Calasanzio and the other called the Chierici regolari della Madre di Dio. Pope Paul V united the groups in 1617 as the Congregazione paolina dei Poveri della Madre di Dio delle Scuole Pie. In 1621, Pope Gregory XV approved the group as a religious order under thename of the Chierici regolari della Madre di Dio della Scuole Pie in a brief entitled "In supremo apostolatus." In 1646, Pope Innocent X reduced the status ofthe order to a congregation under the name of the Oratorio of S. Filippo Neri. The Scolopi were partially reconstituted by Pope Alexander VII and in 1669 were completely reestablished by Pope Clement IX.

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