
âGo for a divine call; go where obedience has destined you. Go for the love of Jesus, for the interests of Jesus and Jesus will always be at your side, always in your heartâ
âWe are apostles! We are apostles, and we wander far and wide, we work generously, only for the sake of souls, only for the Church, only for heaven!â
Paolo Manna was born in Avellino Italy in 1872. He entered the Institute of Foreign Missions in 1891. On 19th May 1894, he was ordained as priest.

Father Paolo Manna receive the missionary mandate for Myanmar
In 1895 left for the mission of Toungoo in Eastern Burma. He worked there for a total of ten years with two short repatriations until 1907 when his illness forced him to come back to Italy definitively.
From 1909 onwards, through writings and a variety of other activities, he dedicated all his energy for more than forty years to fostering missionary zeal among the clergy and the faithful.
In 1916 founded the Missionary Union of the Clergy on which Pius XII bestowed the title of âPontificalâ in 1956. He became the director of Le Missioni Cattoliche (the Catholic Missions).
From 1909 he published âMissionary Propagandaâ as well as âMissionary Italyâ for young people. Â He wrote great works of evangelical and missionary passion such as âOperarii autem pauciâ (the labourers are few), âGo out of Your Countryâ, âThe Separated Brethren and Usâ, âObservation on the Modern Method of Evangelizationâ, and âApostolic Virtuesâ.
He was an ardent and passionate soul for the proclamation of the Kingdom and everywhere he kindled the flame of missionary commitment.
âA missionary congregation in the widest and most sublime sense of the wordâ.
His first meeting with Mother Dones, his collaborator in the spreading of the missionary press, and then with Giuseppina Rodolfi, motivated him to support, especially with reflection, advice and prayer, for the realization of the project of the new foundation of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate. He made the related proposal during the general assembly of PIME in 1934.
He was the Superior General of PIME from 1924 to 1934, and from 1934 he was the first regional superior of Southern Italy at Ducenta. He died in Naples on September 15, 1952.
He was declared Blessed by Pope John Paul II in 2001.
On 14/10/2006, he was proclaimed as the inspirer of the Charism of our Congregation by the IXth General Chapter.
âThe whole Church for the whole world!â.