He
lived for 91 years, half of them spent living among children and young people, and he was buried in San Pantaleo. He had plenty
of debts and not much food and even less sleep. He bore the weight of his new schools and suffered from the injustice of internal
discussions, which ultimately resulted in the temporary dissolution of "his work" just before his death. All this illustrates
both his physical and spiritual strength.
Was
it stubborness or Christian hope? Maybe it was a little of both, which is why he wrote,
"In spite of what is said about our Order, you must know that the Lord will always
protect her, and it will go from better to best, but only on one condition, that we must put forth the deligence we have to
educate the children, especially the poor, in the holy fear of God."
And
when the Order was nearly destroyed, he still insisted,
"Exhort everyone to observe our rules and to persevere with deligence in running
our schools. And be sure that when the human means are lacking, the divine ones will arrive. Therefore, pray and persevere
in teaching, with the certain hope that it will arrive; it will not fail at any moment"
Eight
years after Calasanz's death, Pope Alexander VII cleared the name of the Pious Schools. Joseph Calasanz was beatified in 1748
and canonized nineteen years later.