Passionist 300th Jubilee:
22 November 2020 - 1 January 2022
The Passionist Congregation was born during the 40-day retreat of St. Paul of the Cross, in the church of San Carlo in Castellazzo, Italy. The retreat was preceded by Paul's leaving his family and being clothed as a hermit in a black habit. The vestition ceremony was to have taken place in Alessandria on November 21, 1720, the feast of the Presentation of Mary, but the rite was postponed to Friday, November 22, 1720.
Returning to Castellazzo, where he lived, Paul began his forty-day retreat in the cell of the church of San Carlo on 23 November, in a storeroom off the sacristy. In this period, between December 2nd - 7th 1720, Paul wrote the Rule for the "Poor of Jesus", the first name he thought he would give to the Congregation he intended to found and which later became the Congregation of the Passionists. In his Diary he wrote: "I was writing as if there was someone dictating to me." Paul ended his retreat on January 1, 1721. This is why the dates of the Jubilee Year are: November 22, 2020 - January 1, 2022.