POPE PIUS X
Also known as
Giuseppe Sarto; Joseph Sarto; Pope of the Blessed Sacrament
Memorial
21 August
Profile
Impoverished childhood as one of eight children of a village cobbler. Felt a calling to the priesthood from his youth. Studied at Padua, and was known as an exceptional student. Parish priest, ordained by Blessed Giovanni Antonio Farina on 18 September 1858. Bishop of Mantua. Patriarch of Venice. Cardinal. Pope.
Issued decrees on early (age 7 instead of 12 or 14 as previously) and frequent communion. Destroyed the last vestiges of Jansenism by advocating frequent and even daily communion. Reformed the liturgy, promoted clear and simple homilies, and brought Gregorian chant back to services. Revised the Breviary, and teaching of the Catechism. Fought Modernism, which he denounced as "the summation of all heresies". Reorganized the Roman curia, the administrative elements of the Church. Worked against the modern antagonism of the state against the Church. Initiated the codification of canon law. Promoting Bible reading by all the faithful. Supported foreign missions. His will read: "I was born poor; I lived poor; I wish to die poor."
Born
1835 as Giuseppe Sarto at Riese, Treviso, Venice, Austria (now Italy)
Papal Ascension
1903
Papal Beatifications
1906: Blessed Marie Genevieve Meunier
1906: Blessed Rose Chretien
1907: Blessed Clarus
1907: Blessed Zedislava Berka
1908: Blessed John van Ruysbroeck
1909: Blessed Andrew Nam Thung
1909: Saint Agatha Lin
1909: Saint Agnes De
1909: Saint Joan of Arc
1909: Saint John Eudes
Papal Canonizations
1904: Saint Alexander Sauli
1904: Saint Gerard Majella
1909: Saint Clement Mary Hofbauer
1909: Saint Joseph Oriol
Died
20 August 1914; natural causes aggravated by worries over the beginning of World War I
Canonized
1954 by Pope Pius XII
Writings
E Supremi: On the Restoration of All Things in Christ, 4 October 1903
Ad Diem Illum Laetissiumum: On the Immaculate Conception, 2 February 1904
Iucunda Sane: On Pope Saint Gregory the GreatL, 12 March 1904
Acerbo Nimis: On Teaching Christian Doctine, 15 April 1905
Il Fermo Proposito: On Catholic Action in Italy, 11 June 1905
Vehementer Nos: On the French Law of Separation, 11 February 1906
Tribus Circiter: On the Mariavites or Mystic Priests of Poland, 5 April 1906
Pieni L'Animo: On the Clergy in Italy, 28 July 1906
Gravissimo Officii Munere: On French Associations of Worship, 10 August 1906
Une Fois Encore: On the Separation of Church and State, 6 January 1907
Lamentabili Sane, 3 July 1907
Pascendi Dominici Gregis: On the Doctrine of the Modernists, 8 September 1907
Communium Rerum: On Saint Anselm of Aosta, 21 April 1909
Editae Saepe: On Saint Charles Borromeo, 26 May 1910
Iamdudum: On the Law of Separation in Portugal, 24 May 1911
Lacrimabili Statu: On the Indians of South America, 7 June 1912
Singulari Quadam: On Labor Organizations, 24 September 1912 Haerent animo
Lamentabili sine exitu
Sacra tridentina Synodus
Tra le sollecitudini
Readings
Truly we are passing through disastrous times, when we may well make our own the lamentation of the Prophet: "There is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land" (Hosea 4:1). Yet in the midst of this tide of evil, the Virgin Most Merciful rises before our eyes like a rainbow, as the arbiter of peace between God and man.
Pope Saint Pius X
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- God could have given us the Redeemer of the human race, and the Founder of the Faiths in another way than through the Virgin, but since Divine Providence has been pleased that we should have the Man-God through Mary, who conceived Him by the Holy Spirit and bore Him in her womb, it only remains for us to receive Christ from the hands of Mary.
Pope Saint Pius X
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My hope is in Christ, who strengthens the weakest by His Divine help. I can do all in Him who strengthens me. His Power is infinite, and if I lean on him, it will be mine. His Wisdom is infinite, and if I look to Him for counsel, I shall not be deceived. His Goodness is infinite, and if my trust is stayed in Him, I shall not be abandoned.
Pope Saint Pius X
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let the storm rage and the sky darken - not for that shall we be dismayed. If we trust as we should in Mary, we shall recognize in her, the Virgin Most Powerful "who with virginal foot did crush the head of the serpent."
Pope Saint Pius X
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven.
Pope Saint Pius X
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The collection of psalms found in Scripture, composed as it was under divine inspiration, has, from the very beginnings of the Church, shown a wonderful power of fostering devotion among Christians as they offer "to God a continuous sacrifice of praise, the harvest of lips blessing his name." Following a custom already established in the Old Law, the psalms have played a conspicuous part in the sacred liturgy itself, and in the divine office. Augustine expresses this well when he says: "God praised himself so that man might give him fitting praise; because God chose to praise himself man found the way in which to bless God."
The psalms have also a wonderful power to awaken in our hearts the desire for every virtue. Athanasius says: "The psalms seem to me to be like a mirror, in which the person using them can see himself, and the stirrings of his own heart; he can recite them against the background of his own emotions." Augustine says in his Confessions: "How I wept when I heard you hymns and canticles, being deeply moved by the sweet singing of your Church. Those voices flowed into my earts, truth filtered into my heart, and from my heart surged waves of devotion."
Indeed, who could fail to be moved by those many passages in the psalms which set forth so profoundly the infinite majesty of God, his omnipotence, his justice and goodness and clemency, too deep for words, and all the other infinite qualities of his that deserve our praise? Who could fail to be roused to the same emotions by the prayers of thanksgiving to God for blessings received by the petitions, so humble and confident, for blessings still awaited, by the cries of a soul in sorrow for sin committed? Who would not be fired wiht love as he looks on the likeness of Christ, the redeemer, here so lovingly foretold? His was "the voice" Augustine heard in every psalm, the voice of praise, of suffering, of joyful expectation, of present distress."
from the apostolic consititution of Pope Saint Pius X on Sacred Scripture
