 He expected to continue to serve as a lay brother, but his superiors decided that he should take the tonsure and enter Holy Orders.Paolo Burali become a priest on March 26, 1558.In 1560, at the age of 49, after only three years in the Theatine Order, he became Praepositus of the House of S. Paul in Naples; he was reelected in 1563 and 1564.