St. Pius X, Pope

St. Pius X is known as the “Pope of the Eucharist.” He was born Joseph Melchior Sarto on June 21, 1835, in Riese, northern Italy. He entered the seminary in Padua in 1850, and after studies he was ordained in 1858 for the Diocese of Treviso. For the next nine years, he did pastoral work in small parishes. In 1867, he became archpriest of Salzano, and then in 1875 he was named chancellor of the Treviso Diocese and spiritual director at the major seminary. In 1884, Pope Leo XIII made him Bishop of Mantua, and then in 1893 the same pontiff named him a cardinal and Patriarch of Venice. He was elected pope on August 4, 1903. During his pontificate, which lasted eleven years, he saw to the publication of guidelines for the education and training of priests, and when a diocese could not maintain its own seminary, he encouraged regional seminaries. He supervised the codification of the Church’s canon law, reformed Church music by restoring Gregorian chant, and fought against the threats of Modernism (a movement first known as “New Catholicism”). His decree Lamentabili (July 3, 1907) contains a list of sixty-five errors taught by the Modernists, and in his subsequent encyclical Pascendi (September 8, 1907), he condemns the movement.

Pius likewise promoted devotion to the Holy Eucharist. His decrees on the Eucharist recommended frequent and even daily Communion (1907), and lowered the age for receiving First Communion (1910). He set up a commission to promote biblical studies, which he entrusted to the Benedictines, and he encouraged the daily reading of the Bible. In 1909, he founded the Biblical Institute for scriptural studies in Rome, and this he entrusted to the Jesuits. With the outbreak of World War I, his heart was broken, and he died on August 20, 1914. Throughout his life, whether as parish priest, bishop, or pope, Pius was admired for his simplicity and sincerity. He was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1954. In today’s Mass, the prayers over the gifts and after Communion recall St. Pius X’s devotion and love of the Eucharist, and the opening prayer quotes his motto as pope: “to make all things new in Christ” (Eph. 1:10).