A priest smiles at a child playing just outside the first Passionist monastery in Monte Argentario, Italy .

Tony Coke
A priest smiles at a child playing just outside the first Passionist monastery in Monte Argentario, Italy.

The Passionists trace their origins back to Nov. 22, 1720, the day that Paul Danei received the habit of a hermit and began a 40-day retreat in a small cell in the Church of San Carlo in Castellazzo.