1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Passion

PASSION (post-classical Lat. passio, formed from pati, passus, to suffer, endure), a term which is used in two main senses: (1) the suffering of pain, and (2) feeling or emotion. The first is chiefly used of the sufferings of Jesus Christ, extending from the time of the agony in the garden until his death on the cross. In this sense passio was used by the early Christian writers, and the term is also applied to the sufferings and deeds of saints and martyrs, synonymously with acta or gesta, a book containing such being known as a “passional” (liber passionalis) or “passionary” (passionarius). The order of Passionist Fathers, the full title of which is the “Congregation of the Discalced Clerks of the Most Holy Cross and Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ,” was founded by St Paul of the Cross (Paolo della Croce, 1694–1775; canonized 1867) in 1720, but full sanction was not obtained for the order till 1737, when the first monastery was established at Monte Argentario, Orbetello. The secondary sense of “passion” is due to the late use of passio to translate the Greek philosophical term πάθος, the classical Latin equivalent being affectus. The modern use generally restricts the term to strong and uncontrolled emotion.