St. Pius was born Anthony Ghislieri in Bosco Marengo, near Alessandria, northern Italy, on January 17, 1504. He entered the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) in Voghera when he was fourteen years of age and took the name Michael. After his ordination to the priesthood (1528) in Genoa, he taught theology at the Dominican scholasticate in Pavia. In 1551, Pope Julius III appointed him commissary general of the Roman Inquisition, and later (1566) he became bishop of Sutri. In 1567, Pope Paul IV made him a cardinal, and in 1558 he became the Church’s Inquisitor General. Upon the death of Pope Pius IV (1559–65), he was elected pope on January 7, 1566, and he chose the name of Pius. As pontiff, he was as ascetical in his daily life as he was in appearance. He was wholeheartedly devoted to reform and determined to preserve the integrity of the Catholic faith against the onslaughts of the Reformers. He revised the Roman Breviary (1568) as well as the Roman Missal (1570), both of which continued in use until the revisions ordered by Vatican Council II. He died on May 1, 1572, and was canonized by Pope Clement XI in 1712. When the prayer in today’s Mass speaks of St. Pius as being chosen by God to protect the faith and to give him more fitting worship, this is an allusion to Pius’s determination to keep the faith unadulterated and to his revision of the Church’s liturgical books.