A Saint for Our Age: Pope St. Pius X

Who is St. Pius X?

On August 21, we celebrate the feast day of a modern saint who is perhaps lesser-known, but embodies much of the fullness of the faith. Pope St. Pius X was born in the mid-1800s and died right as WWI was beginning, witnessing a transformational time in global economies and politics. How did this poor Italian boy rise through the ranks to become a leading figure of the day? Read on to find out more. 

Early Life and Priesthood

Born into a devout, but poor Catholic Italian family in 1835, Giuseppe Sarto developed a deep faith life from an early age. A local priest, impressed with his piety, paid for him to go to school and eventually helped him enter the seminary. Sarto was ordained at the age of 23, and spent the next few decades as a parish priest, gaining more administrative duties and titles within his diocese, and eventually being named bishop and then cardinal. Throughout his years as a priest, he was heavily involved in pastoral work - teaching catechesis classes, training the choir, restoring churches, and especially reaching out to the poor and sick, for whom he had a special love. As Bishop of Mantua, his love of liturgy and scholarship reinvigorated an anemic laity, who turned back towards the faith after years of indifference.

At the papal conclave in 1903, an initial cardinal was chosen but under the rules of the time, vetoes were allowed, some by outside political rulers; the Emperor of Austria exercised the veto on this first chosen cardinal, and a few ballots later, Cardinal Sarto was chosen and approved. He picked the named Pope Pius X and as his motto, “To restore all things in Christ." He later abolished the veto and other outside influence in voting for popes.

 Pope Pius X in 1906

Papacy

Pius X reigned as pope from 1903 to 1914, a period of great change in the world. He was a humble and stabilizing force for Catholics as the Church navigated the beginning of the modern era and as the world hurdled towards a global war. His decades as parish priest with both a pastoral touch and an administrative resume were unique for the papacy, and between that and his upbringing, he never lost sight of the poor and common members of the Church. Keep reading to learn about some areas on which Pius X focused his energies as pope.

Frequent Reception of the Eucharist

Pius X harbored a deep love for the Blessed Sacrament. Believing it to be the "shortest and safest way to get to heaven," he encouraged frequent, even daily, reception of the Eucharist; before this, many Catholics received the Eucharist only a few times a year. 

Find books and devotionals on the Blessed Sacrament.

Love of Children

Both as a priest and as pope, Pius X showed a special love for children. He frequently carried candy in his pockets to hand out to children he would pass in the streets, and focused on simple and early catechesis to share the beauty of the faith with the youth. In probably his most remembered contribution as pope, he lowered the age to receive Communion from 12 to 7, contending that the Eucharist could preserve their innocence and protect them from corruption.

Find children's books and gifts here.

Rejection of Modernism

In the encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis, Pope Pius X condemned modernism as “the synthesis of all heresies," and fought against the modernist advance within the church ranks throughout his papacy. He viewed modernism as a sort of agnosticism within the confines of the Church; the rise of Enlightenment rationality culminated in large swathes of people both within and without the Church believing that human reason and scientific discovery could not affirm the existence of God, therefore reducing all religious truth to simply individual experience. Pope Pius predicted this would lead to a wide range of consequences, including relativism in religion and ever-evolving dogmas, shifting to accommodate generational sensibilities. 

Find some books that address modernism:

What's Wrong with the World, GK Chesterton

God and Intelligence in Modern Philosophy, Fulton Sheen

Freedom Under God, Fulton Sheen

Veneration of the Blessed Virgin

Pope Pius X had a deep veneration for Mary, writing an encyclical dedicated to her called Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the definition of the Immaculate Conception. He, like St. Bernard before him, emphasizes Mary's centrality to our relationship with Christ, calling her "the ‘channel’ or, even, the neck, through which the body is joined to the head, and likewise through which the head exerts its power and strength on the body. For she is the neck of our Head, by which all spiritual gifts are communicated to His Mystical Body."

Find Marian items here.

Liturgical and Religious Renewal

Pope Pius X wanted the Catholic faith to be accessible, and he wanted all to know that they could grasp the simple truths of the faith and that human reason could help them reach God. To do so, he emphasized catechesis for both children and adults alike, educated and uneducated, and produced a simple and clear catechism of his own. He also encouraged frequently reading the Bible as well as the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas, the great Dominican writer who emphasized the compatibility of faith and reason. Pius also encouraged liturgical renewal, use of Gregorian chant, and reform of the Curia. He believed in a beautiful and transcendent Church, but one that was still accessible to even the most lowly.

Find catechisms here.

Find works on and by St. Thomas Aquinas here.

Death and Legacy

Pope Pius X died just a few weeks after the outbreak of WWI, his death perhaps sped up by the distress he experienced over the growing conflict. He was canonized in 1954. His prescience regarding the threat of modernism, which has only grown throughout the century since he died, has left us with a strong example of how to identify the heresy and ultimately combat it. Overall, his papacy showed us exactly where the Church and her members should be - living in humility, reaching out to lowest among us, and teaching the faith with clarity, directness, and simplicity.