About Us

We are a Religious Order founded in the 17th century by St. Joseph Calasanz (1557-1648) and dedicated to evangelize through education the children and preferably poor, therefore we profess a special fourth vow.

St. Joseph Calasanz, declared in 1948 by Pope Pius XII “Universal patron of all Christian popular schools in the world”, has the glory of opening “the first public popular free school in Europe” in 1597 (Von Pastor). He proclaimed the right to education of all children and fought for it, being chased by this reason. But he had a resounding success in his purpose as it responded to the challenges and needs of his time.

More than two centuries later, the desire to have the Piarist presence in the Philippines was finally realized. On May 14, 1995, the first Piarist missionaries arrived in Cebu City. They were Fr. Rafael Buitrago, Fr. Jesus Lacarra, and Fr. Imanol Lasquibar. They were welcomed by the Piarist Sisters who were already living and serving in the Archdiocese of Cebu. During their first years, the fathers transferred from one pace to another - from the sisters’ convent in Talisay City, to a house in Molave Street, Cebu City, until they finally settled in Adres Abellana Extension in Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City. On January 16, 1998, the house was blessed by the Archbishop of Cebu, H.E. Ricardo Cardinal Vidal. Few months later, the Novitiate house and the Calasanz Cultural Center were built. The purpose of the Calasanz Cultural Center is to educate children, to facilitate formation programs for young people and parents of the students in the area, and to provide teaching experience to the seminarians and other educators.

On march 5, 1999, the General Congregation canonicaaly established the Juniorate House in New Manila, Quezon City. Fr. Imanol was nominated as the first superior and master of the Juniors.

In 2004, the Calasanz Cultural Center in Cebu was expanded and the Alberto Corrado Center was built in Tipoloville, also in Guadalupe , Cebu City. The building was blessed by Bishop Julito Cortes on June 2, 2005. Few days later, the Landriani House for boys was opened. In that same month, the General Congregation of the Order formally established the Independent Vice-Province of Japan Philippines.

Saint Joseph Calasanz, the founder of the first Christian popular school in Europe and the Piarist Fathers, was born in 1557 in Peralta de la Sal (Aragon, Spain). God prepared in the person of Calasanz a mediator to enrich the Church with a new charismatic gift. He granted him natural gifts and the atmosphere of a family that gave him a long and excellent Christian and cultural training.

God called him to the priesthood, Ministry that he exerted on various curial and pastoral missions. Nine years after being ordained a priest, he left for Rome, where walking through the poorest neighborhood of the city he was moved against the misery in which children and youth of the place lived. His vocation emerged in this framework. He heard the voice of the Lord, who told him: “Joseph, give yourself to the poor. Teach these children and care about them”.

Joseph Calasanz, in the spring of 1597, moved by compassion toward the poor and abandoned children, visited the Roman neighborhood of Trastevere and in the parish of Santa Dorotea he discovered a small parochial school, which made hatching in his heart the decisive way of his life. Thus he founded the “first popular and free school in Europe”. His educational goal was summarized in the slogan: “Piety and Letters”, which today we can translate as “faith and culture”. He called his work the “Pious Schools”.

Center of his educational ideas were the respect for the personality of each child and seeing in them the image of Christ. Through his Pious Schools, he tried to serve the intellectual, physical and spiritual needs of young people at his care. Calasanz was a friend of Galileo, the prominent scientist, and attached great importance to science and mathematics, as well as humanities, in the education of youth.

To continue his educational mission he founded the Order of the Pious Schools, a Religious Order whose members, known as Piarists, profess four solemn religious vows: poverty, chastity, obedience, and the dedication to the education of the youth.

The dream of Saint Joseph Calasanz of educating all the children, his schools for the poor, his support for Galileo’s science, and his life of holiness in service to children and youth, won him the opposition by many of the leading classes of society and also of much of the Church hierarchy. But Calasanz showed exemplary patience against the problems and adversities of life.

This charism was received by Calasanz, first of all, as the acceptance of a new educational and evangelizing mission which was attended by his first companions; then it resulted in a particular relationship sharing with them, in addition to the ministry, housing, prayer and goods in a more stable community; and finally it was completed when Calasanz and a small group of his followers embraced a form of religious life, which strengthened and gave unit to what they had realized and lived until then. The Church approved it as a Congregation in 1617 and as an Order with a specific vow of dedication to the education of the youth, in 1622, with the name of Regular Poor Clerics of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools.

In subsequent years up to his death, Joseph Calasanz promoted the expansion of the charism, carefully nursed the incarnation of the founding gift and defended it against experiences and interpretations which did not respond to the intuition of the origins.

Founder of the first Religious Order specifically dedicated to Christian education through the school, always insisted on three features charismatic thereof, present in germ from the beginning, explicitly affirmed in the Constitutions of 1621 and profiled in the years of expansion and conflict: giving priority to education from infancy, to the education of the poor and education in piety.

He died in Rome the 25th of August 1648, convinced that his Order and his dream would not die. And so it was, as it was declared a Saint in 1767, and Pope Pius XII declared him in 1948 “Heavenly Patron of all Christian popular schools”. Pope John Paul II said that Saint Joseph Calasanz took as a model Christ and tried to convey to young people, as well as profane science, the wisdom of the Gospel teaching them to grasp God’s loving action.

They said 2012 (Dec. 21, 2012) was the end of the world. Yet nothing extraordinary happened on that particular day. On the contrary, 2012 was the beggining of a great opportunity because it marked the very first seed of the Piarist Fathers being planted in the land of Mindanao. The Calasanz de Davao Community was established.

After a series of visits to the area and having continous contacts with people like Archbishop Emeritus Fernando Capalla and the former parish priest of the Holy Family Parish, Fr.Henry Campeon, the Vice-Province of Japan-Philippines finally decided to send Fr. Marlon Nacua , a native of Davao, to start the works of the Piarist in Mindanao. That was on March 9, 2012. Two weeks later, on March 19, solemnity of Saint Joseph, Fr. Mark Sagrado followed. Frs. Marlon and Mark stayed in a two-room apartment in Rosalina Village 3 in Brgy.Baliok, Davao City. They started the community and knew the place by collaborating with the different ministerial activities of the surrounding parishes. They became active and regular collaborators of four parishes, namely: Holy Family Parish in Brgy.Baliok, San Lorenzo Parish in Brgy.Talomo, Sto. Rosario Parish in Brgy.Toril, and the Ascension of the Lord Parish in Brgy.Matina. Like a hermit crab which would always look for a shell, they started to build contacts with the different schools around where they can live up their Piarist charism.

Fr. Marlon was made chaplain and campus minister of Saint Peter College of Toril, a school administered by the Presentation of Mary Sisters (PM sisters) while Fr. Mark accepted the proposal of the same sisters to work as the chaplain, campus minister and a college instructor at the Holy Cross of Calinan, which is 30 kms. away from the community.

Three other religious were eventually sent to join the community: Fr. Randy Suello, Rev.Christopher Castro, ad Bri Pescos. Rev.Christopher and Br. Dindo began working as full teachers and campus ministers at San Lorenzo College, while Fr P. was made chaplain, campus minister, and a high school teacher in school run by the PM Sisters in Mintal.

Since it is not possible to look for a five-room apartment in the said barangay, the community has to live separately in two different apartments with the distance of 100 meters.

On July 15, 2012, the General Congregation canonically erected the Calasanz Community of Davao appointing Fr. Mark as the first superior.

The community has decided to name the community "Calasanz De Davao" for two main reason. First, Saint Joseph Calasanz was a Spaniard. To name the community with the very common Spanish word "de" is somehow an endearment to the very root of our own founder. Second, all the five members of the community have gone either to Spain or Mexico for formation and exposure. This is their way of expressing gratitude to these Spanish-speaking countries where they were formed the Piarist way.

The Calasanz de Davao Community is a very significant presence for the people in this part of the archipelago. They are working with the different religious and secular schools to promote "Piety and Learning" in the spirit of Saint Joseph Calasanz. Yet to have a Piarist school is to have a greater possibility to transmit what St. Joseph Calasanz believes: "If children from their earliest years are instructed diligently in piety and learning, it must undoubtedly be expected that their whole life will be a happy one."

The devotion to the Virgin Mary was an important characteristic in the life of Saint Joseph Calasanz that he transmitted to the Pious Schools. As religious he signed "Joseph of the Mother of God" and to the Order he gave a title "Regular Clerics poor of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools". The LOGO of the Piarist Fathers carried out with that devotion. There are three Greek words that represent:

a) MA: first and last capital letter of the Greek word "MARIA", meaning, "Mary"

b) MP: first and last capital letter of the Greek word "MATER”,meaning, "Mother”

c) OY: first and last capital letter of the Greek word “OEOY", meaning, "Of God".

Hence, the complete meaning of the LOGO of the Piarist Fathers would be: “Mary, Mother of God” or with the crown as queen of heaven and earth would be "Mary, Queen of heaven and earth, Mother of God”. SUN.The circle represents the sun. In order to arrive to the sun, that is Christ, one must pass through Mary; in order to discover the presence of Mary, it is necessary to be enlightened by the sun that is Jesus Christ. COLOR. Golden yellow and royal blue are the official colors of the school. Golden yellow represents the light of Christ and the royal blue represents the devotion to Mary and of her royalty in the Order. Yellow, blue and red: the color of the Philippines. Calasanz de Davao educational context must be Philippines.

Attempts to establish the Piarist Fathers in the Philippines began in the 18th century. In march 1765, Fr. Basilio Sancho, a Spanish Piarist priest, was appointed Archbishop of Mania. He came to the Philippines with four Piarist priest, among them Fr. Martin Martinez, who was asked by the superior of the Order to found Piarist community and schools in the colony. Unfortunately, such foundation was not authorized by the Indian Council. When Archbishop Sancho died in 1787, the remaining Piarists went back to Spain.

More than two centuries later, the desire to have the Piarist presence in the Philippines was finally realized. On May 14, 1995, the first Piarist missionaries arrived in Cebu City. They were Fr. Rafael Buitrago, Fr. Jesus Lacarra, and Fr. Imanol Lasquibar. They were welcomed by the Piarist Sisters who were already living and serving in the Archdiocese of Cebu. During their first years, the fathers transferred from one pace to another - from the sisters’ convent in Talisay City, to a house in Molave Street, Cebu City, until they finally settled in Adres Abellana Extension in Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City. On January 16, 1998, the house was blessed by the Archbishop of Cebu, H.E. Ricardo Cardinal Vidal. Few months later, the Novitiate house and the Calasanz Cultural Center were built. The purpose of the Calasanz Cultural Center is to educate children, to facilitate formation programs for young people and parents of the students in the area, and to provide teaching experience to the seminarians and other educators.

On march 5, 1999, the General Congregation canonicaaly established the Juniorate House in New Manila, Quezon City. Fr. Imanol was nominated as the first superior and master of the Juniors.

In 2004, the Calasanz Cultural Center in Cebu was expanded and the Alberto Corrado Center was built in Tipoloville, also in Guadalupe , Cebu City. The building was blessed by Bishop Julito Cortes on June 2, 2005. Few days later, the Landriani House for boys was opened. In that same month, the General Congregation of the Order formally established the Independent Vice-Province of Japan Philippines.

On March 4, 2006, the Piarist of St. Vincent Ferrer and its parochial school in San Vicente, Camarines Norte was formally entruted to the Piarist Fathers and in 2008, the administration of the Holy Family Parish in Novaliches was transferred to the Piarists.

In 2012, the International Piarist Seminary (formerly in Horseshoe Village, Quezon City, later transferred to Don Jose heights Subdivision in Commonwealth and is renamed as Calasanz international House) was canonically erected for the aspirants and postulants coming from Vietnam, Indonesia, China and East Timor.

On July 16, 2012, the Pairist Fathers, Calasanz de Davao Community, was established which has housed temporarily in Rosalina Village 3, Brgy. Baliok, Talomo District, Davao City. Comprising the five religious, this will lay the foundation of the Piarist presence and service in the area. January 30, 2014, marked a special date for the Order for sending the Order for sending the first Piarist Religious to integrate himself in the Holy Cross of Kiblawan, Davao del Sur. The Piarist Fathers assumed the responsibility of the said school for the next school year 2014-2015 after the TDM sisters took in-charge of it for 30 years On October 3, 2020, a decree from the General House was sent to The Vice-Province of Japan- Philippines announcing its elevation to a province named Asia-Pacific.