This historical profile of St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria (1502–1539), founder of the Clerics Regular of St. Paul (Barnabites) and of the Angelic Sisters of St. Paul (Angelics), is being published to commemorate the fifth centennial of his birth. This holy man, zealous for God and for souls, dedicated his life to the renewal of his society, which was descending into paganism. He lived in the first half of the sixteenth century and died at thirty-six years of age.

Although Anthony Mary lived hundreds of years ago, his life is thoroughly relevant to the Christians of our day—for his message is rooted in the unchanging Gospel, is permeated with the supreme science of Jesus Christ (as the Church prays in the liturgy), and is animated and guided by the Pauline “foolishness of the Cross.”