Jesuit 

confessor and one of the restorers of the Society of Jesus after its suppression in 1773.

He was born in Saragossa, Spain, and became a Jesuit at the age of fifteen. When the Jesuits
were suppressed at the command of the pope and under intense pressure from the European
monarchs, he resided in Bologna, Italy, for two decades. In 1799, he opened a new semiofficial
novitiate for the Jesuits, laying the foundation for the eventual restoration of
the Society of Jesus by Pope Pius VII in 1814. Pope Pius XI described him as a priest of "manly
and vigorous holiness," and Pius XII termed him the "restorer of the Jesuits." Joseph was
canonized in 1954.

Joseph Mary Pignatelli (Spanish: José María Pignatelli) (27 December 1737 – 15 November

1811) was a Spanish priest who was the unofficial leader of the Jesuits in exile in Sardinia, after
the suppression of the Society of Jesus. Supervising its restoration, he is considered second
founder of the Society of Jesus.

Contents

 1 Life
o 1.1 Early life
o 1.2 Exile
o 1.3 Restoration
o 1.4 Death and veneration
 2 Legacy
 3 References
 4 External links

Life

Early life

Pignatelli was born in Zaragoza, Spain, of Neapolitan descent and noble lineage. He did his early
studies in the Jesuit College of Zaragoza, along with his brother, Nicolás. There he
developed tuberculosis, which was to plague him his entire life. He entered the Society of
Jesus at the age of 15 on 8 May 1753 in Tarragona, despite his family's opposition. On
completing his theological studies he was ordained a priest, and assigned to teach at the
College of Zaragoza.

In 1766 the Governor of Zaragoza was held responsible for a threatened famine, and so
enraged was the populace against him that they were about to destroy his palace by fire.
Pignatelli's persuasive power over the people averted the calamity. Despite the letter of thanks
sent by King Charles III of Spain, the Jesuits were accused of instigating the above-mentioned
riot. Pignatelli's refutation of the charge was followed by the decree of expulsion of the Jesuits
of Zaragoza on 4 April 1767.[1]
The Count of Aranda, a favorite of the king and a supporter of the expulsion of the Jesuits from
Spain, offered to allow Pignatelli and his brother, Nicolás (also a member of the Society), as
members of the nobility, to remain in the city, provided that they leave the Society. In spite of
Joseph's ill-health, the brothers stood firm and went into exile with their confreres.[1]

Exile

Not permitted by Pope Clement XIII to land at Civitavecchia in Italy, along with the other Jesuits
of the province of Aragon, they sailed to the Corsican Republic, where Pignatelli displayed a
marked ability for organization in providing for 600 priests and seminarians.[1] His sister, the
Duchess of Acerra, aided them with money and provisions. He organized studies and the Jesuits
were able to maintain their regular religious observances.

When France took control of Corsica in 1770, the Jesuits were obliged to go to Genoa for
shelter. Pignatelli was again required to secure shelter in the legation of Ferrara, not only for
the Jesuits of his own province, but also for those forced home from the missions in New Spain.
The community, however, was dissolved upon the suppression of the entire Society by Pope
Clement XIV in August 1773. The two Pignatelli brothers were then obliged to seek refuge
in Bologna, where they lived in retirement, being forbidden to exercise their Christian ministry.
They devoted themselves to study and Pignatelli began to collect books and manuscripts
bearing on the history of the Society.

Restoration

A few years later, the newly elected Pope Pius VI granted permission for the surviving ex-Jesuits
to reunite with the members of the Society of Jesus still functioning in the Russian Empire.
Pignatelli sought to go there, that he might join them, but for various reasons he was obliged to
defer his departure. During this delay Pignatelli was permitted by Ferdinand, Duke of
Parma (who had violently expelled them from his lands in 1768), to re-establish the Society in
his duchy. In 1793, having obtained through Empress Catherine II of Russia a few Jesuit fathers
from Russia, along with some other Jesuits, the new establishment was made.

On 6 July 1797, Pignatelli renewed his religious vows. In 1799 he was appointed master of

novices for a new novitiate in Colorno, which had been authorized by the pope. On the death of
the Duke of Parma in 1802, the duchy was absorbed into France. Nevertheless, the Jesuits
remained undisturbed for eighteen months, during which period Pignatelli was
appointed provincial superior of the Jesuits within Italy in 1800 by Pope Pius VII. After
considerable discussion he obtained permission for the Jesuits to serve in the Kingdom of
Naples. The papal brief authorizing this (30 July 1804) was much more favorable than that
which had been granted for Parma. The surviving Jesuits soon asked to be received back, but
many were engaged in various ecclesiastical posts where they were obligated to stay. Schools
and a college were opened in Sicily, but when this part of the kingdom fell into Napoleon's
power the dispersion of the Jesuits was ordered, though the decree was not rigorously
enforced. Pignatelli founded colleges in Rome, Tivoli, and Orvieto, and the Jesuit fathers were
gradually invited to other cities.

During the exile of Pope Pius VII and the French occupation of the Papal States, the Society
continued untouched, owing largely to the prudence of Pignatelli; he even managed to avoid
any oaths of allegiance to Napoleon. He also secured the restoration of the Society in Sardinia
in 1807.[2]

Death and veneration

Pignatelli died in Rome, then under French occupation, on 15 November 1811, due to
hemorrhaging resulting from his tuberculosis, which had begun the previous month. His
remains rest today in a reliquary under the altar of the Chapel of the Passion in the Church of
the Gesù in Rome.

The cause for Pignatelli's canonization was introduced under Pope Gregory XVI. He

was beatified on 21 May 1933 by Pope Pius XI, and was canonized on 12 June 1954 by Pope
Pius XII.

Legacy

The Society of Jesus was fully restored in the Catholic Church in 1814.

After St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, Pignatelli is arguably the most
important Jesuit in its subsequent history, linking the two Societies, the old Society which was
first founded in 1540, and the new Society which was founded forty years after it had been
suppressed by Pope Clement XIV in 1773. Pignatelli can thus be rightly considered the savior
and restorer of the Society of Jesus.[3]

https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=4091
Joseph Pignatelli (Giuseppe Pignatelli, 1737-1811) was born in a palace but is honored for
leading and sustaining Jesuits during the long and extremely difficult years when the Society of
Jesus was suppressed. Both his Italian father and his Spanish mother were of noble descent,
and Pignatelli lived in the family palace in Saragossa, Spain. When his mother died in 1743, his
father moved the family to Naples. Four years later his father died.

Pignatelli returned to Saragossa in 1749 to attend the Jesuit school there and lived with the
community. On May 8, 1753 he entered the novitiate at Tarragona and then followed normal
formation path of studying philosophy and theology. He was ordained a priest the week before
Christmas 1762 and spent the next four-and-a-half years in Saragossa performing humble
apostolates: teaching grammar to young boys, visiting the local prison and ministering to
prisoners condemned to be executed.

Father Pignatelli had given up the privileged life of a Spanish grandee for the simple routine of a
Jesuit teacher, but that changed suddenly on April 3, 1767 when King Charles III expelled the
Jesuits from his kingdom and confiscated their property. Five thousands Jesuits lost everything
and instantly became homeless. Pignatelli could have claimed the privileges of his birth to
remain in Spain, but he elected to accompany his Jesuit brothers in exile. The elderly rector at
Saragossa presciently delegated his authority to the young priest. When the Jesuits from
Saragossa arrived in Tarragona, they met other Jesuits waiting to be deported, among whom
was the provincial, who also delegated his authority to Pignatelli, making him the religious
superior of some 600 Jesuits.

A convoy of 13 ships left Spain carrying the Jesuits to exile in Italy, but they were not allowed to
land at the port of Civitavecchia on Italy's western shore, nor at the port of Bastia on the island
of Corsica. They finally landed at Bonifacio on Corsica's southern tip, but had to leave there a
year later when France acquired the island from Genoa in September 1768. The Jesuits were
packed into ships and taken to Genoa, the start of a 300-mile march to Ferrara in the Papal
States. Jesuits who were old or in ill health found the journey difficult; all finished it exhausted.

The exiles found a welcome in Ferrara through the kindness of Pignatelli's cousin, Msgr. Francis
Pignatelli, a future cardinal, but they lived in a tenuous situation since the princes of Europe
were pressuring Pope Clement XIII to suppress the Society of Jesus. He resisted but his
successor, Clement XIV, yielded to the pressure and on July 21, 1773 decreed the dissolution of
the Society of Jesus by his brief Dominus ac Redemptor noster. Pignatelli and 23,000 other men
were suddenly ex-Jesuits, no longer bound by their vows. The priests were still priests, but
brothers and scholastics were suddenly laymen.

Pignatelli moved to Bologna and for the next 24 years kept in contact with his dispersed
brothers. He took on a more active role when he wrote to the Jesuit provincial in White Russia
(today's Belarus) asking for readmission. Catherine the Great of Russia had forbidden the papal
brief of suppression to be promulgated in her territories, so the Jesuits in White Russia
continued without interruption. Ferdinand, duke of Parma, also wanted to have Jesuits in his
territory so he began negotiations with the Jesuits in White Russia. In 1793 three Jesuits came
to his duchy to open a Jesuit community. Pignatelli associated himself with the group. Finally on
July 6, 1797, at age 60, he again pronounced his religious vows. Two years later he became
novice master at Colorno, the only Jesuit novitiate in western Europe at that time. On May 7,
1803, the superior in Russia appointed him provincial of Italy.

A period of turmoil followed these promising developments. When French troops occupied the
duchy of Parma in 1804, the Jesuits went into exile in Naples where Pius VIII had, by a special
brief on July 30, 1804, restored the Society in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Many former
Jesuits went there to rejoin the Society. Pignatelli only enjoyed Neapolitan hospitality for two
years before Joseph Bonaparte overran the country and forced the non-native Jesuits to leave.
They migrated north to Rome where Pius VII welcomed them; they set up a regular community
at St. Pantaleon's near the Roman Coliseum and soon had a novitiate in Orvieto.

Fr. Pignatelli had been an exile for 40 years when he arrived in Rome, still cherishing the hope
that the Society would be fully restored but resigning himself to not seeing it during his lifetime.
During his last two years his health weakened and he suffered from hemorrhages, probably
caused by stomach ulcers. In October 1811 he was confined to bed. He died peacefully on Nov.
15, three years before Pius VII restored the Society.

https://www.jesuits.global/saint-blessed/saint-joseph-pignatelli/

St. Joseph Pignatelli, SJ (1737-1811)

St. Joseph Pignatelli, SJ, helped restore the Society of Jesus after its suppression (1773-1814).

For multiple political reasons, European monarchs pressured the pope into suppressing the
Jesuits in the late 18th century. The Jesuit suppression affected Portugal, France, the Two
Sicilies, Parma, and the Spanish Empire by 1767. In 1773 Pope Clement XIV dissolved the Order
entirely. Prussia and Russia refused to carry out the papal decree. Because of this, the Society
of Jesus survived in Russia throughout the suppression.

When the Jesuits were suppressed in Spain, Pignatelli could have remained in his country,
because he was a member of the Spanish nobility. Instead Pignatelli chose exile with his Jesuit
brothers and became Superior for 600 remaining Jesuits. These Jesuits were refused entry into
Italy and settled on the southern tip of Corsica, only to be exiled once again when France
acquired Corsica in 1768. The community finally made it to Ferrara in Northern Italy, where
they lived a fragile existence until the final suppression in 1773.
Now forbidden to practice his ministry as a priest, Pignatelli moved to Bologna and for the next
24 years kept in contact with his dispersed brethren. Pignatelli attempted to become a member
of the Jesuit community in Russia. Unable to go to Russia, Pignatelli accepted an invitation from
Ferdinand, Duke of Parma, to reestablish the Society in his territory. With several Jesuits from
Russia, the Jesuit community was reestablished in 1797. Pignatelli renewed his vows and was
appointed Novice Master. Later he was appointed Provincial in Italy.

In the midst of the Napoleonic wars, with shifting political pressures among the small states in
Italy, Pignatelli shepherded the re-founded Jesuit communities. Joseph Pignatelli hoped to live
to see the full restoration of the Society of Jesus but, worn out by his labors, died in 1811—
three years before Pope Pius VII universally restored the Society. Due to his efforts to keep the
Jesuit ideals and community alive, St. Joseph Pignatelli is considered the restorer of the Society
of Jesus.

https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-voices/18th-and-19th-century-ignatian-voices/
st-joseph-pignatelli-sj/

St Joseph Pignatelli was born in Saragossa, Spain, of noble descent. His mother died when he
was six, and his father moved with the younger children to Naples but within four years his
father also died.
At twelve, Joseph returned with his younger brother, Nicholas, to Saragossa, where they studied
at the Jesuit school. By special privilege, they resided in the Jesuit community. Living among the
Jesuits convinced Joseph of his vocation, and in 1753, he entered the novitiate at Tarragona, and
took his religious vows two years later. Joseph spent the following year at Manresa, doing
classical studies, the next three years studying philosophy at Calatayud, and the subsequent four
years back at Saragossa, for his theology.
After Joseph was ordained in 1762, he taught grammar to young boys at his old school and
assisted in its parish. He taught for four and a half years, visited the local prisons and ministered
to condemned convicts about to be executed. This apostolate ended abruptly when in 1767, King
Charles III expelled the Jesuits from his kingdom and confiscated their property, making five
thousand Jesuits homeless with one royal stroke of the pen.
Fr Pignatelli was made the acting provincial over some 600 exiled Jesuits on board thirteen ships
during their three months at sea before arriving at Bonifacio, on the southern tip of Corsica. Later
they were taken away to Genoa. After travelling three hundred miles on foot, they arrived at
Ferrara, in the Papal States, tired and exhausted, but were welcomed by Fr Pignatelli’s cousin
and future cardinal, Msgr Francis Pignatelli.
The princes of Europe were pressuring the Pope to suppress the Society. Although Clement XIII
heroically withstood the pressure, his successor, Clement XIV crumbled beneath it and decreed
the dissolution of the Society of Jesus. This meant that Fr Pignatelli and 23,000 others were no
longer Jesuits and were no longer bound by their vows.
Saddened by this decree, Fr Pignatelli moved to Bologna where he and his brother, Nicholas,
also a Jesuit, continued to live the life of a Jesuit, and for the next twenty four years (1773-1797)
he kept in contact with his dispersed brethren. Meantime in White Russia (today’s Belarus) the
Jesuits survived, because the Russian Czarina, Catherine II did not carry out the suppression.
When Fr Pignatelli heard about this, he obtained permission from Pope Pius XI to affiliate with
the Russian Jesuit province. Meantime Ferdinand, Duke of Parma also entered into negotiations
with White Russia, and in 1793, three Jesuits came to his Duchy to open a house for the Society.
Fr Pignatelli associated himself with this group and in 1797, at sixty, he also promised God
poverty, chastity and obedience, just as he did in Spain in 1755.
Fr Pignatelli was made Master of novices in 1799 and in 1803, he was appointed provincial of
Italy. When the Society was restored in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, many former Jesuits
came to them to be re-admitted, and the Jesuit apostolate became active again.
Fr Pignatelli and the other Jesuits were expelled from Naples when Napoleon’s brother Joseph
Bonaparte overran the country. They headed for Rome and were welcomed by Pope Pius VII.
Within months of their arrival in Rome, the Jesuits set up a novitiate at Orvieto and were
teaching in six diocesan seminaries. Fr Pignatelli was already seventy and had been in exile for
forty years when he came to Rome. He still cherished the hope that the Society would be restored
throughout the world during his lifetime. His health was weakening and during his last two
years, he suffered from frequent hemorrhages due to tuberculosis and was soon confined to bed.
Fr Pignatelli died peacefully on November 15, 1811 without seeing the end of the 41-year
suppression. However, his dearest hope of seeing the entire Society restored was realized when
Pope Pius VII decreed it on August 7, 1814, three years after his death. Society of Jesus” died
peacefully and serenely.

https://www.jesuit.org.sg/nov-joseph-pignatelli-sj/