Our Founder, James Alberione, the fifth son of Michael Alberione and Teresa Allocco, was born at San Lorenzo di Fossano (Cuneo, Piedmont) on April 4, 1884. In October 1900 he entered the diocesan seminary at Alba and on June 29, 1907, he was ordained a priest.
On August 20, 1914, he founded in Alba the Pious Society of St. Paul for evangelization with the media of social communication. This foundation was followed by the others to constitute the Pauline Family: the Pious Society Daughters of St. Paul (the Media Apostolate), the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master (the Liturgical Apostolate), the Sisters of Jesus, the Good Shepherd (Catechists), the Queen of the Apostles Institute, known as the Apostoline Sisters (the Vocation Apostolate): the aggregated institutes for lay men and women: St. Gabriel the Archangel, Mary Most Holy of the Annunciation, the Holy Family Institute; and for priests, the Institute of Jesus, the Priest: and the Pauline Cooperators, those lay collaborators who share in the spiritual and apostolic life of any of the Congregations and Institutes listed above.
Several times he circled the globe to encounter his sons and daughters spread throughout every continent on earth and exhort them to live an ever more contemplative and apostolic life. The secret of his widespread apostolic activity was founded on an interior life that ever sought to realize the words of the Apostle Paul: “The life I live now is not my own; Christ is living in me (Gal 2:20).
On November 26, 1971, at the age of eighty-seven, having been comforted by the visit and blessing of Pope Paul VI, Father Alberione left this world to return to the House of the heavenly Father. He was proclaimed Blessed on April 27, 2003 by Pope John Paul II.
