When I think that I am "old" and have not done much with my life yet, I should be reminded of Saint Paula of Saint Joseph of Calasanz who was thirty and still single and devoting her life to God.
As a youth she worked as a seamstress and lace-maker and helped to raise her siblings and helped in her parish to care for other children.
At age thirty, she and her friend Inez Busquets opened a school in Gerona, Spain to provide a good eduction combined with spiritual guidance. The school was a success and she founded a college in 1842 and another school in 1846. To staff the schools, she founded the Daughters of Mary on February 2, 1847 and she took the name Paula of Saint Joseph of Calasanz. Paula served as the leader of the congregation and they received approval from the Pope, Blessed Pius IX in 1860. The schools are now on four continents. Paula died on February 26, 1889 in Barcelona, Spain; she was almost 90 years old. She was canonized by Pope John Paul II on November 25, 2001.
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