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Also known as: Giuseppe
Sarto; Joseph Sarto; Pope of the Blessed Sacrament
Profile
Impoverished childhood as one of eight children of a village cobbler. Felt
a calling to the priesthood from his youth. Studied at Padua, and was
known as an exceptional student. Parish priest, ordained by Blessed
Giovanni Antonio Farina on 18 September 1858. Bishop of Mantua. Patriarch
of Venice. Cardinal. Pope.
Issued decrees on early (age 7 instead of 12 or 14 as previously) and
frequent communion. Destroyed the last vestiges of Jansenism by advocating
frequent and even daily communion. Reformed the liturgy, promoted clear
and simple homilies, and brought Gregorian chant back to services. Revised
the Breviary, and teaching of the Catechism. Fought Modernism, which he
denounced as "the summation of all heresies". Reorganized the Roman curia,
the administrative elements of the Church. Worked against the modern
antagonism of the state against the Church. Initiated the codification of
canon law. Promoting Bible reading by all the faithful. Supported foreign
missions. His will read: "I was born poor; I lived poor; I wish to die
poor."
Born: 1835 as Giuseppe Sarto at Riese, Treviso, Venice, Austria (now
Italy)
Papal Ascension: 1903
Papal Beatifications
1906: Blessed Marie Genevieve Meunier 1906: Blessed Rose Chretien 1907:
Blessed
Died: 20 August 1914; natural causes aggravated by worries over the
beginning of World War I
Canonized: 1954 by Pope Pius XII
Patronage
archdiocese of Atlanta Georgia USA, diocese of Des Moines Iowa USA, first
communicants, diocese of Great Falls-Billings Montana, pilgrims, diocese
of Springfield-Cape Girardeau Missouri
Readings
Truly we are passing through disastrous times, when we may well make our
own the lamentation of the Prophet: "There is no truth, and there is no
mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land" (Hosea 4:1). Yet in
the midst of this tide of evil, the Virgin Most Merciful rises before our
eyes like a rainbow, as the arbiter of peace between God and man.
Pope Saint Pius X
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God could have given us the Redeemer of the human race, and the Founder of
the Faith in another way than through the Virgin, but since Divine
Providence has been pleased that we should have the Man-God through Mary,
who conceived Him by the Holy Spirit and bore Him in her womb, it only
remains for us to receive Christ from the hands of Mary.
Pope Saint Pius X
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My hope is in Christ, who strengthens the weakest by His Divine help. I
can do all in Him who strengthens me. His Power is infinite, and if I lean
on him, it will be mine. His Wisdom is infinite, and if I look to Him for
counsel, I shall not be deceived. His Goodness is infinite, and if my
trust is stayed in Him, I shall not be abandoned.
Pope Saint Pius X
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Let the storm rage and the sky darken - not for that shall we be dismayed.
If we trust as we should in Mary, we shall recognize in her, the Virgin
Most Powerful "who with virginal foot did crush the head of the serpent."
Pope Saint Pius X
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Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven.
Pope Saint Pius X
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The collection of psalms found in Scripture, composed as it was under
divine inspiration, has, from the very beginnings of the Church, shown a
wonderful power of fostering devotion among Christians as they offer "to
God a continuous sacrifice of praise, the harvest of lips blessing his
name." Following a custom already established in the Old Law, the psalms
have played a conspicuous part in the sacred liturgy itself, and in the
divine office. Augustine expresses this well when he says: "God praised
himself so that man might give him fitting praise; because God chose to
praise himself man found the way in which to bless God."
The psalms have also a wonderful power to awaken in our hearts the desire
for every virtue. Athanasius says: "The psalms seem to me to be like a
mirror, in which the person using them can see himself, and the stirrings
of his own heart; he can recite them against the background of his own
emotions." Augustine says in his Confessions: "How I wept when I heard you
hymns and canticles, being deeply moved by the sweet singing of your
Church. Those voices flowed into my ears, truth filtered into my heart,
and from my heart surged waves of devotion."
Indeed, who could fail to be moved by those many passages in the psalms
which set forth so profoundly the infinite majesty of God, his
omnipotence, his justice and goodness and clemency, too deep for words,
and all the other infinite qualities of his that deserve our praise? Who
could fail to be roused to the same emotions by the prayers of
thanksgiving to God for blessings received by the petitions, so humble and
confident, for blessings still awaited, by the cries of a soul in sorrow
for sin committed? Who would not be fired with love as he looks on the
likeness of Christ, the redeemer, here so lovingly foretold? His was "the
voice" Augustine heard in every psalm, the voice of praise, of suffering,
of joyful expectation, of present distress."
from the apostolic constitution of Pope Saint Pius X on Sacred Scripture
source:
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintp06.htm
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