Second in seniority of the orders of regular clerics (the
Theatines being first), the Barnabites were founded in Milan, by
Anthony Mary Zaccaria, Barthélemy Ferrari, and
Jacopo Antonio Morigia. It was approved by
Pope Clement VII in the brief
Vota per quae vos on 18 February 1533. After the death of Zaccaria in 1539, the congregation was favoured and protected by Archbishop
Charles Borromeo of Milan and later by
Francis de Sales because of their successful missionary work in Upper Italy. Charles Borromeo presided, in 1579, as Cardinal Protector, over the commission which wrote the Constitutions of the Order. The
General Chapters of the Order were regularly held at Milan until the reign of
Pope Alexander VII (1655–67), who ordered them to convene in Rome.
Pope Innocent XI (1676–89), however, finally decreed that they should be held in Rome and Milan alternately. These assemblies of the
Provincial Superiors were held every three years for the election of a new
Superior General, whose term of office was limited to that period, only one re-election being allowed to each incumbent of the office. The Society started pastoral activity among the working classes and in monasteries. In the early 17th century, the Barnabites gradually entered the field of education – work which was to remain a mark of their apostolate. They entered France under Henry IV in 1608, and Austria under Ferdinand II in 1626. The present Constitution is an updated version dated 1983, which takes into account the changes from the
Second Vatican Council. There is a female branch of
Religious Sisters, the Angelic Sisters of St. Paul, found by Anthony Mary Zaccaria, and an organization for lay people, the
Laity of St. Paul, originally called the Married of St. Paul and sometimes referred to in North America as the Oblates of St. Paul. As of March 29, 2025, the new Superior General comes from
Democratic Republic of the Congo:
the Very Rev. Étienne Ntalé Majaliwa, until that day provincial father in Belgium. == Character of the Order ==