Joseph Giaccardo was born at Narzole in Italy. His parents were hard-working farmers and Joseph grew up under their loving care. From his parents, he too learned to love the Catholic faith and the Church.

Joseph specially prayed to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and to Mother Mary. He had a little statue of Mary on a shelf in his room.

Joseph became an altar server at Mass when he was still in school. That is how he met a young priest who came to help at St. Bernard’s church.

The priest was about to begin a wonderful new religious order, the Society of St. Paul. His name was Father James Alberione. Joseph liked him very much. Father Alberione was impressed with Joseph too and guided Joseph in the spiritual life.

Joseph told him that he would very much like to become a priest, but his parents were poor and could not afford to send him to the seminary.

Fr. Alberione promised Joseph that he would help and with his parents blessings, the 18 year old Joseph joyfully entered the seminary in Alba to study for the priesthood.

Ten years later, though still a seminarian, Joseph asked his bishop for permission to leave the seminary. He wanted to join Father Alberione’s new order, the Society of St. Paul and the bishop halfheartedly allowed Joseph to go.

Joseph took his vows and chose the name “Timothy” after the best loved disciple of St. Paul. Father Timothy was ordained two years later, the first priest in Father Alberione’s new congregation, the Society of St. Paul which started in 1914.

Father Timothy’s work as a Pauline priest was to be a media apostle. He wrote, edited, printed and distributed the Word of God. They used modern ways of communication to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Some people did not understand the work of the Society of St. Paul and the Daughters of St. Paul. They wondered how priests, brothers and sisters could be publishers. How could they use media as their tools for communicating the Good News?

Father Timothy helped people understand the marvelous vocation (work) of the Paulines. He carried out many responsible duties with courage and humility. He was also a great teacher of the priests and religious who joined their order.

He served the Lord in northern Italy and in Rome as the Vicar General of the Society. He became Father Alberione’s closest helper and friend. In fact, Father Alberione called Blessed Timothy “most faithful of the faithful.”

But he could not take over from Father Alberione as the founder had hoped. Father Timothy became very ill with leukemia and died on January 24, 1948.

Anthony was born at Catalonia in Spain and the same year Napoleon attacked Spain.

In 1835 he became a priest and was sent to his home parish. Later he went to Rome and worked to help the missions. He joined the Jesuits as a novice, but his became ill.

So he returned to Spain and became a pastor. But Father Anthony knew that the whole world was a mission field and he had the heart of a missionary. He was a dedicated preacher in his parish. He gave conferences to priests.

Father Anthony knew how powerful books were to reach people and he wrote at least 150 books. His most well-known book, The Right Way, has reached millions of people.

Some people did not understand the work that Father Anthony did. His success made them very unhappy. But the Lord allowed people to find fault with his work so that this energetic priest could visit the Canary Islands.

He spent a year there preaching the Good News and then returned to Catalonia, Spain. In 1849, Anthony started a new religious order called the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. They are known as the Claretians.

Queen Isabella II of Spain thought highly of St. Anthony. She suggested that he was the best person to become archbishop of Santiago, Cuba. And he spent seven exciting years as Archbishop in Cuba.

Archbishop Anthony visited parishes, speaking out against social evils, especially slavery. He blessed marriages and baptized children. He made many changes in Cuba, but this made him many enemies.

He received death threats often but did not stop his wonderful work until he was called back to Spain in 1857.

Anthony was head of a seminary in Madrid and he established the school of St. Michael to encourage arts and literature and even tried to start a school of agriculture.

He went to Rome to help prepare for the First Vatican Council in 1869 but died in 1870.