Pope Pius X

Photo as Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto

Pope Leo XIII made him a cardinal of the order of cardinal priests in a secret consistory on 12 June 1893.[14] Three days later in a public consistory on 15 June, Pope Leo XIII gave him his cardinal's red galero, assigned him the titular church of San Bernardo alle Terme, and appointed him Patriarch of Venice.[15] This caused difficulty, however, as the government of the reunified Italy claimed the right to nominate the Patriarch, since the previous sovereign, the Emperor of Austria, had exercised that power. The poor relations between the Roman Curia and the Italian civil government since the annexation of the Papal States in 1870 placed additional strain on the appointment. The number of vacant sees soon grew to 30. Sarto was finally permitted to assume the position of patriarch in 1894. In regard to being named as a cardinal, Sarto told a local newspaper that he felt "anxious, terrified and humiliated".[16]

After being named cardinal and before leaving for Venice, he paid his mother a visit. Overwhelmed with emotion and in tears, she asked: "My son, give your mother a last blessing", sensing that it would be the last time that they would see each other.[10] Arriving in Venice, he was formally enthroned on 24 November 1894.

As cardinal-patriarch, Sarto avoided politics, allocating his time to social works and strengthening parochial banks. However, in his first pastoral letter to the Venetians, Sarto argued that in matters pertaining to the pope, "There should be no questions, no subtleties, no opposing of personal rights to his rights, but only obedience."

In April 1903, Pope Leo XIII reportedly said to Lorenzo Perosi: "Hold him very dear, Perosi, as in the future he will be able to do much for you. We firmly believe he will be our successor". As a cardinal, he was considered by the time of his papal election as one of the most prominent preachers in the Church despite his lesser fame globally.[17] In his role as a cardinal, Sarto held membership in the congregations for Bishops and Regulars, Rites, and Indulgences and Sacred Relics.

In his 1904 encyclical Ad diem illum, he views Mary in the context of "restoring everything in Christ".

He wrote:

Spiritually we all are her children and she is the mother of us, therefore, she is to be revered like a mother.[23] Christ is the Word made Flesh and the Savior of mankind. He had a physical body like every other man: and as savior of the human family, he had a spiritual and mystical body, the Church. This, the Pope argues has consequences for our view of the Blessed Virgin. She did not conceive the Eternal Son of God merely that He might be made man taking His human nature from her, but also, by giving him her human nature, that He might be the Redeemer of men. Mary, carrying the Savior within her, also carried all those whose life was contained in the life of the Savior. Therefore, all the faithful united to Christ, are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones[24] from the womb of Mary like a body united to its head. Through a spiritual and mystical fashion, all are children of Mary, and she is their Mother. Mother, spiritually, but truly Mother of the members of Christ (S. Aug. L. de S. Virginitate, c. 6).[23]

During Pius X's pontificate, many famed Marian images were granted a canonical coronation: Our Lady of Aparecida, Our Lady of the Pillar, Our Lady of the Cape, Our Lady of Chiquinquira of Colombia, Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos, Our Lady of La Naval de Manila, Virgin of Help of Venezuela, Our Lady of Carmel of New York, and the Immaculate Conception within the Chapel of the Choir inside Saint Peter's Basilica were granted this prestigious honor.

Within three months of his coronation, Pius X published his motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini. Classical and Baroque compositions had long been favoured over Gregorian chant in ecclesiastical music.[25] The Pope announced a return to earlier musical styles, championed by Lorenzo Perosi. Since 1898, Perosi had been Director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, a title which Pius X upgraded to "Perpetual Director". The Pope's choice of Joseph Pothier to supervise the new editions of chant led to the official adoption of the Solesmes edition of Gregorian chant.

Pius X worked to increase devotion among both clergy and laity, particularly in the Breviary, which he reformed considerably, and the Mass.

Besides restoring to prominence Gregorian Chant, he placed a renewed liturgical emphasis on the Eucharist, saying, "Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven." To this end, he encouraged frequent reception of Holy Communion. This also extended to children who had reached the "age of discretion", though he did not permit the ancient Eastern practice of infant communion. He also emphasized frequent recourse to the Sacrament of Penance so that Holy Communion would be received worthily. Pius X's devotion to the Eucharist would eventually earn him the honorific of "Pope of the Blessed Sacrament", by which he is still known among his devotees.

In 1910, he issued the decree Quam singulari, which changed the age at which Communion could be received from 12 to 7 years old, the age of discretion. The pope lowered the age because he wished to impress the event on the minds of children and stimulate their parents to new religious observance; this decree was found unwelcome in some places due to the belief that parents would withdraw their children early from Catholic schools, now that First Communion was carried out earlier.[21] Pius X even personally distributed First Communion to a four-year-old boy the day after the child was presented to him and demonstrated an exceptional understanding of the meaning of the sacrament.[10] When people would criticize Pius X for lowering the age of reception, he simply quoted the words of Jesus, "let the little children come to me".

Pius X said in his 1903 motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini, "The primary and indispensable source of the true Christian spirit is participation in the most holy mysteries and in the public, official prayer of the Church."[21]

He also sought to modify papal ceremonies to underscore their religious significance by eliminating occasions for applause. For example, when entering his first public consistory for the creation of cardinals in November 1903, he was not carried above the crowds on the sedia gestatoria as was traditional. He arrived on foot wearing a cope and mitre at the end of the procession of prelates "almost hidden behind the double line of Palatine Guards through which he passed".[26]

Pope Leo XIII had sought to revive the inheritance of Thomas Aquinas, 'the marriage of reason and revelation', as a response to secular 'enlightenment'. Under Pius X, neo-Thomism became the blueprint for theology.[27]

Most controversially, Pius X vigorously condemned the theological movement he termed 'Modernism', which he regarded as a heresy endangering the Catholic faith. The movement was linked especially to certain Catholic French scholars such as Louis Duchesne, who questioned the belief that God acts in a direct way in the affairs of humanity, and Alfred Loisy, who denied that some parts of Scripture were literally rather than perhaps metaphorically true. In contradiction to Thomas Aquinas they argued that there was an unbridgeable gap between natural and supernatural knowledge. Its unwanted effects, from the traditional viewpoint, were relativism and scepticism.[28] Modernism and relativism, in terms of their presence in the Church, were theological trends that tried to assimilate modern philosophers like Immanuel Kant as well as rationalism into Catholic theology. Modernists argued that beliefs of the Church have evolved throughout its history and continue to evolve

Anti-Modernists viewed these notions as contrary to the dogmas and traditions of the Catholic Church. In the decree entitled Lamentabili sane exitu[29] ("A Lamentable Departure Indeed") of 3 July 1907, Pius X formally condemned 65 propositions, mainly drawn from the works of Alfred Loisy and concerning the nature of the Church, revelation, biblical exegesis, the sacraments, and the divinity of Christ. That was followed by the encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis (or "Feeding the Lord's Flock"), which characterized Modernism as the "synthesis of all heresies." Following these, Pius X ordered that all clerics take the Anti-Modernist oath, Sacrorum antistitum. Pius X's aggressive stance against Modernism caused some disruption within the Church. Although only about 40 clerics refused to take the oath, Catholic scholarship with Modernistic tendencies was substantially discouraged. Theologians who wished to pursue lines of inquiry in line with Secularism, Modernism, or Relativism had to stop, or face conflict with the papacy, and possibly even excommunication.

Pius X's attitude toward the Modernists was uncompromising. Speaking of those who counseled compassion, he said: "They want them to be treated with oil, soap and caresses. But they should be beaten with fists. In a duel, you don't count or measure the blows, you strike as you can."[30] He also instituted the Sodalitium Pianum (or League of Pius V), an anti-Modernist network of informants, which was much criticized due to its accusations of heresy on the flimsiest evidence.[21] This campaign was run by Umberto Benigni in the Department of Extraordinary Affairs in the Secretariat of State, which distributed anti-Modernist propaganda and gathered information on "culprits". In Benigni's secret code, Pius X was known as Mama.[30]

Pius X in his study while receiving a portraiture. Nearby is a statue of John Vianney.

Gala Berlin produced in Rome by the Casalini brothers, renowned carriage manufacturers, during the papacy of Pius IX, whose coat of arms is painted on both doors. As shown by the emblems of Pius IX and Pius X, painted on the right and left doors respectively, the carriage was used during various pontificates until the beginning of the twentieth century.

In 1905, Pius X in his letter Acerbo nimis mandated the establishment of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (catechism class) in every parish in the world.[21]

The Catechism of Pius X is his realisation of a simple, plain, brief, popular catechism for uniform use throughout the whole world; it was used in the ecclesiastical province of Rome and for some years in other parts of Italy; it was not, however, prescribed for use throughout the universal Church.[31] The characteristics of Pius X were "simplicity of exposition and depth of content. Also because of this, Pius X's catechism might have friends in the future."[32][33] The catechism was extolled as a method of religious teaching in his encyclical Acerbo nimis of April 1905.[34]

The Catechism of Saint Pius X was issued in 1908 in Italian, as Catechismo della dottrina Cristiana, Pubblicato per Ordine del Sommo Pontifice San Pio X. An English translation runs to more than 115 pages.[35]

Asked in 2003 whether the almost 100-year-old Catechism of Saint Pius X was still valid, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said: "The faith as such is always the same. Hence the Catechism of Saint Pius X always preserves its value. Whereas ways of transmitting the contents of the faith can change instead. And hence one may wonder whether the Catechism of Saint Pius X can in that sense still be considered valid today."[33]

Canon law in the Catholic Church varied from region to region with no overall prescriptions. On 19 March 1904, Pope Pius X named a commission of cardinals to draft a universal set of laws. Two of his successors worked in the commission: Giacomo della Chiesa, who became Pope Benedict XV, and Eugenio Pacelli, who became Pope Pius XII. This first Code of Canon Law was promulgated by Benedict XV on 27 May 1917, with an effective date of 19 May 1918,[36] and remained in effect until Advent 1983.[37]

Pius X reformed the Roman Curia with the constitution Sapienti Consilio (29 June 1908)[38] and specified new rules enforcing a bishop's oversight of seminaries in the encyclical Pieni l'animo.[39] He established regional seminaries (closing some smaller ones), and promulgated a new plan of seminary study. He also barred clergy from administering social organizations.

Monsignor Eugenio Pacelli at left and Cardinal Secretary Rafael Merry del Val at the signing ceremony of the Serbian concordat during the pontificate of Pius X, dated 24 June 1914

Pius X reversed the accommodating approach of Leo XIII towards secular governments, appointing Rafael Merry del Val as Cardinal Secretary of State (Merry del Val would later have his own cause opened for canonization in 1953, but still has not been beatified[21]). When the French president Émile Loubet visited the Italian monarch Victor Emmanuel III (1900–1946), Pius X, still refusing to accept the annexation of the papal territories by Italy, reproached the French president for the visit and refused to meet him. This led to a diplomatic break with France and to the 1905 Law of Separation between church and state, by which the Church lost government funding in France. The pope denounced this law, and removed two French bishops for recognising the Third Republic. Eventually, France expelled the Jesuits and broke off diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

The Pope adopted a similar position toward secular governments in Portugal, Ireland, Poland, Ethiopia, and in other states with large Catholic populations. His opposition to international relations with Italy angered the secular powers of these countries, as well as a few others like the UK and Russia. In Ireland, Protestants increasingly worried that a proposed Home Rule by an Irish parliament representing the Catholic majority (rather than the status quo of rule by Westminster since the 1800 Union of Ireland and Great Britain) would result in Rome Rule due to Pius X's uncompromising stance being followed by Irish Catholics (Ultramontanism).

In 1908, the papal decree Ne Temere came into effect which complicated mixed marriages. Marriages not performed by a Catholic priest were declared legal but sacramentally invalid, worrying some Protestants that the Church would counsel separation for couples married in a Protestant church or by civil service.[40] Priests were given discretion to refuse mixed marriages or to lay conditions upon them, commonly including a requirement that the children be raised Catholic. The decree proved particularly divisive in Ireland, which its large Protestant minority, contributing indirectly to the subsequent political conflict there and provoking debates in the British House of Commons.[41] The long term effect of Ne Temere in Ireland was that Irish Unionism which had had strongholds in Dublin as well as Ulster, but existed to some extent on the entire island of Ireland, declined overall and became virtually exclusively a phenomenon of what is today Northern Ireland. Furthermore, while historically both Protestant Irish nationalists and Catholic Unionists existed, the divide over who should rule Northern Ireland eventually came to almost exactly match the confessional divide.

As secular authority challenged the papacy, Pius X became more aggressive. He suspended the Opera dei Congressi, which coordinated the work of Catholic associations in Italy, as well as condemning Le Sillon, a French social movement that tried to reconcile the Church with liberal political views. He also opposed trade unions that were not exclusively Catholic.

Pius X partially lifted decrees prohibiting Italian Catholics from voting, but he never recognised the Italian government.

Initially, Pius maintained his prisoner in the Vatican stance, but with the rise of socialism he began to allow the Non Expedit, which prohibited Catholics from voting, to be relaxed. In 1905, he authorized bishops in his encyclical Il fermo proposito to offer a dispensation allowing their parishioners to exercise their legislative rights when "the supreme good of society" was at stake.[42]

Under Pius X, the traditionally difficult situation of Polish Catholics in Russia did not improve. Although Nicholas II of Russia issued a decree 22 February 1903, promising religious freedom for the Catholic Church, and in 1905 promulgated a constitution which included religious freedom,[43] the Russian Orthodox Church felt threatened and insisted on stiff interpretations. Papal decrees were not permitted and contacts with the Vatican remained outlawed.

In 1908, Pius X lifted the United States out of its missionary status, in recognition of the growth of the American Church.[21] Fifteen new dioceses were created in the US during his pontificate, and he named two American cardinals. He was very popular among American Catholics, often depicted as an ordinary man from a poor family, raised by God to the papal throne.[21]

In 1910, the pope refused an audience with former Vice-President Charles W. Fairbanks, who had addressed the Methodist association in Rome, as well as with former President Theodore Roosevelt, who intended to address the same association.[21][44]

On 8 July 1914, Pope Pius X approved the request of Cardinal James Gibbons to invoke the patronage of the Immaculate Conception for the construction site of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.

Other than the stories of miracles performed through the pope's intercession after his death, there are also stories of miracles performed by the pope during his lifetime. On one occasion, during a papal audience, Pius X was holding a paralyzed child who wriggled free from his arms and then ran around the room. On another occasion, a couple (who had made confession to him while he was bishop of Mantua) with a two-year-old child with meningitis wrote to the pope and Pius X then wrote back to them to hope and pray. Two days later, the child was cured.[21]

Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini (later the Archbishop of Palermo) had visited the pope after Ruffini was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and the pope had told him to go back to the seminary and that he would be fine. Ruffini gave this story to the investigators of the pontiff's cause for canonization.[21]

Once, a man who suffered from a paralyzed arm begged Pius X for his help. Taking his arm in his hand, the pope simply said, "have confidence in the Lord ... only have faith and the Lord will heal you". At that moment, the man could actually move his arm, calling out to the pope joyfully who simply put a finger to his lips so as not to draw any attention to what had happened, indicating that the man simply hold his peace.[10] Another case saw an Irish girl covered in sores taken to see the pope by her mother. When Pius X saw her, he placed his hand on her head, and the sores completely disappeared. Another case saw a Roman schoolgirl contract a serious foot disease that rendered her crippled since she was only a year old. Through a friend she managed to acquire one of the pope's socks and was told that she would be healed if she wore it, which she did. At the moment she placed the sock on, the diseased foot was instantly healed. When Pius X heard about this, he laughed and said, "What a joke! I wear my own socks every day and still I suffer from constant pain in my feet!"[10]

Pius X consecrates Bishop Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, the future Pope Benedict XV, in the Vatican in 1907.

In addition to the political defense of the Church, liturgical reforms, anti-modernism, and the beginning of the codification of canon law, the papacy of Pius X saw the reorganisation of the Roman Curia. He also sought to update the education of priests, seminaries and their curricula were reformed. In 1904 Pope Pius X granted permission for diocesan seminarians to attend the College of St. Thomas. He raised the college to the status of Pontificium on 2 May 1906, thus making its degrees equivalent to those of the world's other pontifical universities.[45][46] By Apostolic Letter of 8 November 1908, signed by the Supreme Pontiff on 17 November, the college was transformed into the Collegium Pontificium Internationale Angelicum. It would become the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in 1963.

Pius X published 16 encyclicals; among them was Vehementer nos on 11 February 1906, which condemned the 1905 French law on the separation of the State and the Church. Pius X also confirmed, though not infallibly,[47] the existence of Limbo in Catholic theology in his 1905 Catechism, saying that the unbaptized "do not have the joy of God but neither do they suffer... they do not deserve Paradise, but neither do they deserve Hell or Purgatory."[48][49] On 23 November 1903, Pius X issued a papal directive, a motu proprio, that banned women from singing in church choirs (i.e. the architectural choir).

In the Prophecy of St. Malachy, the collection of 112 prophecies about the popes, Pius X appears as Ignis Ardens or "Burning Fire".

In November 1913, Pope Pius X declared tango dancing as immoral and off-limits to Catholics.[50] Later, in January 1914, when tango proved to be too popular to declare off-limits, Pope Pius X tried a different tack, mocking tango as "one of the dullest things imaginable", and recommending people take up dancing the furlana, a Venetian dance, instead.[51]

Pius X beatified a total of 131 individuals (including groups of martyrs and those by recognition of "cultus") and canonized four. Those beatified during his pontificate included Marie-Geneviève Meunier (1906), Rose-Chrétien de la Neuville (1906), Valentin Faustino Berri Ochoa (1906), Clair of Nantes (1907), Zdislava Berka (1907), John Bosco (1907), John of Ruysbroeck (1908), Andrew Nam Thung (1909), Agatha Lin (1909), Agnes De (1909), Joan of Arc (1909), and John Eudes (1909). Those canonized by him were Alexander Sauli (1904), Gerard Majella (1904), Clement Mary Hofbauer (1909), and Joseph Oriol (1909).

In 1908 Pope Pius X named John Chrysostom a patron saint of preachers.[52][53]

Pius X created 50 cardinals in seven consistories held during his pontificate which included noted figures of the Church during that time such as Désiré-Joseph Mercier (1907) and Pietro Gasparri (1907). In 1911, he increased American representation in the cardinalate based on the fact that the United States was expanding; the pope also named one cardinal in pectore (António Mendes Belo, whom the media accurately speculated on) in 1911 whose name he later revealed in 1914. Pius X also named as a cardinal Giacomo della Chiesa, his immediate successor, Pope Benedict XV.

Among the cardinals whom he nominated came the first Brazilian-born (and the first Latin American-born; Arcoverde) and the first from the Netherlands (van Rossum) since 1523. The consistory of 1911 was the largest number of cardinals elevated at a single consistory in roughly a century.

In 1911, the pope reportedly wished to elevate Diomede Panici to the cardinalate, however, Panici died before the promotion ever took place. Furthermore, this came after Panici was originally considered but passed for the elevation by Pope Leo XIII who even had considered elevating Panici's brother. In the 1914 consistory, Pius X considered naming the Capuchin friar Armando Pietro Sabadel to the cardinalate, however, Sabadel declined the pope's invitation.

On 19 May 1944, the body of Pius X was exhumed for inspection as part of the beatification process, during which the remains were found to be miraculously incorrupt. In 1959, the remains of the late pope were sent, with the permission of Pope John XXIII (himself a former Patriarch of Venice), to Venice in 1959. Before the remains were taken to Venice via a train on 11 April, Pope John XXIII led a small prayer service alongside some other cardinals. The body was exposed for the veneration of the faithful at the Basilica of Saint Mark for one month (12 April–10 May) before returning them back to the late pope's original resting place, with Cardinal Giovanni Urbani acting as the papal legate for the month-long event.[57]

• Á Czaich; A. Fráter (1907). X. Pius pápa. Életének és uralkodásának története napjainkig. Budapest: Az Athenaeum.
• Monsignor Hartwell de la Garde Grissell (1903). Sede Vacante: Being a Diary Written During the Conclave of 1903. Oxford: James Parke & Co.
• Sarto, Giuseppe Melchiorre (2 February 1904). "Ad diem illum". Rome, IT: Vatican Publishing House. 5.
• ——— (1905). Catechism (PDF). Catholic Primer. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 May 2013. Retrieved 23 June 2008.
• ——— (15 April 1905a). "Acerbo Nimis". Rome, IT: Vatican Publishing House. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
• ——— (3 July 1907). "Lamentabili Sane". Papal encyclicals. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
• Schmidlin, Edward; de Waal, Anton (1904). Life of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. Benziger Brothers. Retrieved 17 November 2017. (this was an apologetic work intended for American audiences, where criticism of 'popery' was very common in society, and it contained a preface by James Cardinal Gibbons).
• Monsignor E. Canon Schmitz (1907). Life of Pius X. New York: The American Catholic Publication Society.
• Monsignor Anton de Waal (1904). Life of Pope Pius X. trans. Joseph William Berg. Milwaukee: The M.H. Wiltzius Co.

• F. A. Forbes (1924) [1918]. Life of Pius X (2nd ed.). New York: PJ Kenedy & Sons. Merry del Val (above) considered this work to be the most authoritative written on him.
• René Bazin (1928). Pius X. St Louis: B Herder.
• Burton, Katherine (1950). The Great Mantle: The Life of Giuseppe Sarto. Longmens.
• Thornton, Father Francis Beauchesne (1952). The Burning Flame: The Life of Pius X. Benziger Brothers. This priest was the editor for Burton's book.
• Martini, Teri (1954). The Fisherman's Ring: The Life of Giuseppe Sarto, The Children's Pope. St Anthony Guild Press.