A friend of mine recently introduced me to a custom of some religious communities, whereby all the members draw the names of saints from a hat each New Year's Day. The idea is that by randomizing the process, there is some room for the saint to pick the brother or sister, rather than the other way around. We thought this was a nice custom and she agreed to pick a bunch of saint names. I volunteered and was given St. Pius X, Pope. Without further delay, a little introduction...
Giuseppe Sarto, who would become Pope Pius X, was born near Venice, Italy on June 2, 1835 and died August 20, 1914. His father was a cobbler by trade as well as the town postmaster. This meant a poor upbringing for Sarto, who was only able to attend school due to the generous scholarships of the local parish priest. Upon his ordination, he was placed as a chaplain under a pastor who admired him greatly and foretold that he would one day be a bishop. When Sarto did become bishop, he faced difficulty opposing the secularists of Italy (the Italian reunification movement was growing in opposition to the authority of the Church) and had his work cut out for him in the form of great need of reform among the clergy of his diocese. He was nevertheless a successful bishops, not only helping the clergy, but also leading catechesis directly in order to bring out faithful devotion among the laity. He was appointed Patriarch and Cardinal of Venice, where he did more work of the same kind, reforming the Church. When Pope Leo XIII died in 1903, Cardinal Sarto was elected and took the name Pius X. His chosen motto, Instaurare Omnia in Christo - Restore All Things in Christ - defined his papacy. He reformed seminaries and priestly formation, led to increased piety among the laity, and lowered the age of First Holy Communion to the age of reason, considered by Catholic philosophers to be around seven years of age. Among the great battles of his papacy was his fight against the Modernist Heresy, which crept into the Church through theologians who tried to adapt the Church to the modern world.
I look forward to learning, along with you, my readers, much more about St. Pius X over the course of this year! Expect much more to come.
His Servant and Yours,
Micah
The Feast of Ss John and Paul, Martyrs
1 day ago
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My grad school has adopted his motto as our own. I'll have to pass along to you any salient bits about him that come up in my liturgical studies. You happened upon quite an excellent patron for this year!
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