PIUS X, Pope, Blessed. - Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, born at Riese, a village in the diocese of Treviso, on 2 June 1835, to Giovanni Battista Sarto, a municipal messenger, and Margherita Sanson, a seamstress, the second of ten children. Having completed his early studies, not without sacrifices, in nearby Castelfranco, at the age of fifteen, through the good offices of his fellow countryman Cardinal Monico, Patriarch of Venice, he obtained a free place at the Seminary of Padua, where he immediately distinguished himself by keenness of intellect, nobility of character, and love of virtue.
Ordained priest on 18 September 1858, a chaplain for nine years in the small village of Tombolo, then for the same period parish priest in the large town of Salzano, he displayed outstanding gifts as a curer of souls. In 1875 he was called to Treviso as diocesan chancellor, spiritual director of the Seminary, canon of the Cathedral, and, during the vacancy of the see, capitular vicar. Elected at the end of 1884 Bishop of Mantua, in nine years of wise and strong government he reorganized catechesis, renewed the Seminary, carried out two pastoral visitations, celebrated a Synod, and opposed socialist propaganda with institutions of charity and social assistance. Made a cardinal in June 1893, promoted to the patriarchal see of Venice, his exequatur was delayed until November 1894. His principal concerns: the Seminary and the clergy, the catechism and the Opera dei Congressi, the spread of the Catholic press and of economic-social works. He provided for the dignity of the functions and of sacred music. He favored the establishment of a civic administration in coalition between Catholics and moderates. He manifested the goodness of his heart with gestures of inexhaustible charity, under the veil of sincere humility and austere simplicity.
The account of the Conclave of 1903 was made public by the Revue des deux mondes in an article by Cardinal Mathieu, Archbishop of Toulouse. Among the 62 cardinals assembled, two currents had formed: to continue Leo XIII's policy unchanged, or to change it, especially with regard to France; the former backed the Sicilian Cardinal Rampolla (v.), Leo XIII's Secretary. Before the scrutiny of the morning of 2 August, amid the astonishment and deploration of all, Cardinal Puzyna, Archbishop of Cracow, presented in the name of the Emperor of Austria Franz Joseph "the veto of exclusion" against Cardinal Rampolla. A vigorous protest was voiced by Cardinal Oreglia di S. Stefano, Dean of the Sacred College. Most noble words from Cardinal Rampolla, who in the following scrutiny kept his 29 votes; indeed in the afternoon he gathered 30. False, therefore, is the rumor that the choice of Cardinal Sarto was determined by the audacious and abusive intrusion of the secular power. Not without mature counsel, freely, the cardinals agreed upon Sarto as a person who by his exemplary life and his excellent gifts as a pastor commanded the admiration of all who knew him. To the others he revealed himself. "I am unworthy, I am incapable, forget me," he implored weeping. "It was precisely the reasons he adduced - testifies Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore - that rendered the entreaties vain, because they were so full of humility and wisdom that they increased the esteem and the votes of the eminent cardinals. We learned to know him from the profound sincerity of his words." At the scrutiny of the morning of 4 August Sarto had 50 votes. To the ritual question of the Cardinal Dean, he replied: "If it is not possible that this cup pass from me, may the will of God be done. I accept the pontificate as a Cross." He took the name Pius X in remembrance of the pontiffs who in recent times had suffered most.
On the Roman Chair Pius X immediately manifested to a stunned and admiring world sovereign greatness, heroic virtue, wisdom in government, and fascinating goodness, in an ascent from year to year ever more evident along the sublime path of holiness. Of medium stature, of complex build, of amiable countenance; with a lively and penetrating eye, a slow, almost labored gait, naturally majestic; his gesture broad, measured, paternal; his speech simple, familiar, persuasive in its marked Venetian accent. From his person emanated an attraction of gentleness and at the same time of strength that left everyone conquered. His intelligence was quick and penetrating, his will strong and resolute, his temperament frank and naturally impetuous, yet restrained by strong self-mastery. The long experience of ministry favored his innate good sense, which expressed itself in the immediate intuition of problems and in their rapid and appropriate solution. Most sensitive of heart, he had a most vigilant conscience of duty, nourished by reflective and courageous prudence. He faced with decision the grave responsibilities of his post; serene in spirit through an unshakable faith in the designs of Providence. His love of justice made him austere, at times severe in exacting obedience, in defending the rights of God, in affirming the independence of the Church. His natural goodness, sanctified by the Grace of the Holy Spirit and made more dear by a charming simplicity of manner, radiated from him in countless acts of charity, always intelligent, often heroic. A happy judge of men, of their possibilities and their weaknesses; understanding and merciful toward the erring, as intransigent and most severe against errors; an enemy of every kind, even veiled, of nepotism; a lover of the genuine spirit of poverty; faithful and constant in friendship; cordial and generous toward his collaborators; averse to courtiership; resolved to pursue solely the apostolic ideal, he aroused in those near and far the fascination of a holiness all the more conquering the less singular and studied it was. From Leo XIII, Pius X inherited a heavy and complicated situation, of which the clamorous interference of Austria in the Conclave is one of the revealing signs. In Italy the separation between Church and State, a consequence of the complex and thorny "Roman question," imposed a prudent line of conduct which on the one hand safeguarded the sacrosanct rights of the Church's liberty and sovereignty and on the other took account of the supreme religious interests of the Italian people in its historical and civic evolution. In France the radical-Masonic government threatened to break the Concordat and attempted to subjugate the episcopate and clergy to the Third Republic. In the other Catholic countries of Europe and America, anticlericalism was promoted by Freemasonry, which now gave it a legalistic appearance in the parliaments and in the courts, now incited it in vulgar forms, through a poisonous, blatant, blasphemous press and not infrequent street demonstrations.
The spirit of the age is the total denial of the supernatural world; it is the spread of a practical atheism that generates a rejection of Catholic tradition and dissolves faith into a vague sentiment of religiosity. Positivism in its expression of dialectical materialism and idealism in the guise of a two-faced subjectivism align Christianity with all the other historical religions in a rationalist syncretism. The social, political and economic world suffers ever more from a capitalistic conception protected by a liberalism which, elevating liberty to a myth, favors the exaggerated wealth of the few and creates the sad misery of the many. Social inequality, made more serious by industrial development, offers socialism — materialist by origin and anticlerical by custom — an excellent opportunity for demands with the weapon of the strike. Dynamism, the child of technology, insinuating itself even into the sanctuary, proclaims the primacy of action, relegating the so-called passive virtues to the monasteries. In the Catholic camp itself there is a ferment not free from dangers and deviations. Catholic laymen, who are nonetheless organizing themselves into flourishing associations of various economic, trade-union, charitable and political structure, nevertheless perceive, because of the audacities and intemperances of a few, a discomfort that threatens the unity, the concord and the life of the nascent "Christian democracy." In the internal life of the Church there is felt a desire for reforms of structures worn out by time; there is invoked a renewal of ecclesiastical discipline and an updating of pastoral care, especially with regard to sacred studies, catechesis, the liturgy and sacred song. Everywhere there creeps, insidious, the poison of modernism. In the light of God the blessed Pius X is conscious of the immense task that Providence entrusts to him. His hope is in the Lord.
The man reveals his temper and gives the measure of his awareness from the very first encyclical, E supremi apostolatus cathedra of 4 October 1903, two months after his election. The diagnosis of the disease that afflicts society is precise: apostasy from God. The remedy? Supported by the virtue of God — thus he writes — we proclaim that we have no other program in Our pontificate than this: to restore every thing in Christ, so that Christ may be all and in all... The interests of God will be Our interests, for which we are resolved to spend all Our strength and life itself. It is the duty of the Pope to lead back into the path of equity, both in public and in private life, on the political as well as on the social terrain, all men, both those who obey and those who command. The Pope "cannot absolutely separate the things that belong to faith and morals from politics." "A sublime mission... which, passing beyond these fleeting goods of the earth, extends even to eternity; which, not restricted by local boundaries, embraces all the nations of the earth; which includes the defense of the Gospel in every field, even in the stormy one of politics; which drives Our solicitude not only to the faithful, but to all men for whom Christ died" (allocution to the cardinals of 3 November 1903). To the luminous program the reforming Pope remains faithful until death. Among his collaborators he has Cardinal Raffaele Merry Del Val, a most faithful Secretary of State. "I chose him," Pius X used to say, "because he is a polyglot. He knows the problems of all countries, he is very modest, he is a saint... I chose him for his piety and for his priestly spirit." And to the same cardinal: "We will work together and together we will suffer for the love and honor of the Church."
I. PIUS X AND FRANCE
The situation, while Leo XIII was still alive, had already become strained, when on 23 Dec. 1902 the minister Combes, without following the normal procedure of the nuncio, had proposed to the Holy See, in a style anything but respectful, the appointment of two ecclesiastics as bishops and the transfer of a third. The Holy See's reply was negative, motivated by the lack of suitability of the candidates. An exchange of notes between the French government and the Holy See followed, with the evident intention of the Masonic government to find a pretext for breaking the Concordat of 1801. In Apr. 1904 Loubet, president of the Republic, contravening the practice introduced after 1870, officially visited the King of Italy. Immediate protest from the Holy See. Recall of the ambassador to the Vatican and prohibition to the bishops of Dijon and Laval from going to Rome to respond to the formal invitation of the Pope. Breaking of diplomatic relations (30 July 1904). The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate approve (3 July-9 Dec. 1904) the law of separation of Church and State and the lapse of the Concordat. Consequently every juridical recognition is denied by the Republic to the Church of France. P. X responds on 11 Febr. 1906 with the encyclical Vehementer nos and condemns the law of separation, denounces the abuses of the government: the tampering with the Archive of the nunciature, the confiscation of ecclesiastical property, the abolition of religious congregations, the expulsion of their members; worship limited to the functions of the Church alone; the bishops and the clergy stripped of every state subsidy. In order to detach the faithful from Rome and to have the clergy in its power, the government proposes worship associations. P. X thwarts the snares by publicly condemning them in the encyclical Gravissimo officii munere (10 Aug. 1906). With a admirable example of concord and of fidelity to the Roman See, bishops, priests, religious, and faithful are ready to face hunger rather than contravene the pontifical directives. The Church of France, free from all state interference, gains a better spiritual order and gives great comfort to the heart of the Pontiff, who rewards so much fidelity by consecrating 14 new bishops in St. Peter's. On the margins of this epic struggle between Church and State there insinuates itself the attitude of the Action Française, which polarizes conservative and anti-democratic monarchists and attempts to gain adherents. On the opposite side is the group of republican Catholics, the so-called "abbés démocrates." Verbal excesses and theologically erroneous attitudes of the followers of the Sillon of Marc De Sangnier oblige P. X to condemn as dangerous a tendency that seeks to withdraw the faithful from the due discipline of the hierarchy. Other sorrows afflict the heart of the Pontiff. In Portugal the revolution, having overthrown the monarchy, persecutes the Church: ecclesiastical property confiscated, religious congregations suppressed, bishops and priests in exile. In Spain the breaking of diplomatic relations makes the situation of the religious congregations critical. In Germany the raising of shields on the part of liberals and Protestants over the judgments against the reformers contained in the encyclical Editae saepe (26 May 1910). But alongside the many thorns there is no lack of roses. In the Anglo-Saxon countries of Europe and America, the Church regains ground and asserts itself ever stronger and more robust. A spirit of tolerance allows it to reorganize communities and dioceses.
II. PIUS X AND ITALY
The increasingly aggressive progress of the subversive parties and the obstinate persecution of the Masonic sects make the development of Catholic life worrisome in Italy as well. The meritorious Opera dei Congressi and its related Committees, spread like a strong net throughout all the dioceses, keeps Catholics organized, but the only influence it manages to exert in the civic and political field is that of defending moral principles and protesting the trampled rights of the Holy See. Yet the necessity of being present in public life grows graver and more urgent from day to day. Therefore Pius X in 1909, while not revoking the non expedit (v.), tempered it by leaving to the bishops the faculty of permitting Catholics access to the polls for superior reasons of the public good. Thus 24 Catholic deputies enter the Italian Parliament, while in the elections of 1913, with action better disciplined by the Catholic Electoral Union, the deputies elected number around a hundred. The "Roman question" too comes to be viewed no longer as a sic et simpliciter restoration of temporal power, but rather as a guarantee for the freedom and independence of the Pontiff. On the Masonic side the response is a sectarian and anti-historical attitude: typical in this regard is the insulting speech of Nathan, mayor of Rome and grand master of Freemasonry, for 20 Sept. 1910. Significant by contrast is the Social Week of Catholics at Milan in 1913 with the "authorized" speeches of Msgr. A. Rossi and Count G. Dalla Torre.
III. PIUS X RESTORER OF CHRISTIAN LIFE
"To make Jesus Christ reign, nothing is more necessary than the holiness of the clergy" (letter to Cardinal Respighi, 1902): this is the thought that guides the Pontiff in arranging the reorganization of the Roman seminaries in the Lateran, in promoting the regional seminaries of central and southern Italy, in dictating uniform norms suited to the times for the study and discipline of aspirants to the priesthood, in sending apostolic visitors to the seminaries and dioceses, in fostering the development of a sound and solid ecclesiastical culture. The origin of the Biblical Institute in Rome, a true and proper university of Sacred Scripture, the revision of the Vulgate entrusted to the Benedictines, the motu proprio for the study of the philosophy of St. Thomas in the schools, are the principal documents of his solicitude for having a learned clergy, while the celebrated exhortation Haerent animo, dictated on the occasion of his priestly jubilee, remains a precious code of the virtuous life and of the pastoral activities of the ministers of God. G. Sarto had been able to observe, from the time he was a young chaplain, the chief cause of apostasy from God in religious ignorance, and for this reason he had labored by example and exhortation to combat it. As Pontiff, with the encyclical Acerbo nimis of 15 April 1905 he issues wise laws for catechetical instruction for children, young people and adults; by his example he holds Sunday catechism classes for the people of Rome; he orders the promulgation of the single text of the catechism for the dioceses of Italy; he encourages gatherings for the catechetical apostolate. To live in Grace one must feed the soul with the "living bread come down from heaven." Pius X is rightly called the Pope of the Eucharist, because with his decrees he promoted the practice of frequent and daily Communion of the faithful (20 Dec. 1907, Sacrosancta Tridentina Synodus), favored Holy Communion for the sick (S. Congr. of the Council, 7 Dec. 1906), offering them the comfort of being able to receive the Eucharist several times during their illness, and opened (decr. 28 Aug. 1910, Quam singulari Christus amore) to little children, who know how to distinguish the Eucharistic Bread from common bread, the Holy Tabernacle.
Within the framework of the Christian education of the faithful must be understood the vast liturgical reform carried out by Pius X: the reform of the Breviary, the studies for the reform of the Missal and for the liturgical books of the Eastern Church. In the motu proprio of 22 Nov. 1903 new norms are given for the restoration of Gregorian melodies, for polyphonic music, for the choral singing of the faithful.
IV. PIUS X AND THE APOSTOLATE OF THE LAITY
As bishop and patriarch, he had always favored the action of militant laypeople, taking part in meetings and congresses, and defending their leaders when they were unjustly attacked. But he could not fail to notice that the Opera dei Congressi e dei Comitati cattolici was suffering from the wear of time. Between the older members, anchored to the positions of yesterday, and the young, eager to open the way to tomorrow, there was no longer any understanding. The excesses of the young democratic group, led by Romolo Murri, at the Congress of Bologna (Nov. 1903) hastened its end. In July 1904 the Pope dissolved the Opera dei Congressi, leaving alive the Second Section, that of Christian popular action, and the Society of Catholic Youth. The small band, in solidarity with Murri, threw itself into rebellion and was condemned. Meanwhile the main body was organized into the Unione popolare, the Unione elettorale, and the Unione economico-sociale, to which in 1910 the Pope added the Unione femminile cattolica. The encyclical Il fermo proposito of 11 June 1905, the feast of Pentecost, remains the Magna Charta of the apostolate of the laity until the reorganization by Benedict XV.
V. PIUS X AND MODERNISM
Prepared by the intellectual and cultural conditions of the beginning of the 20th century, modernism (v.), the child of Kantian subjectivism and of the pseudo-religious emotionalism of Schleiermacher, finds in the evolutionist symbolism of Sabatier, applied to Revelation, a suggestive and convenient principle for smuggling in the philosophy of immanence and rationalist criticism as genuine science; and it begins with biblical studies. In 1902 A. Loisy (v.) published L'Evangile et l'Eglise, attempting to make an apology for the Church by denying its divine origin. This is the beginning of an ever more ruinous and more extensive collapse in France (Loisy), in England (Tyrrell), in Italy (Buonaiuti); from the exegetical field it passes with ease to the dogmatic, moral, juridical, social, literary field. Clamorous defections, underhanded maneuvers, cunning, well-armed, multiform propaganda. The poison is injected with impressive speed, it penetrates even into the seminaries, into the cloisters, into the ranks of the clergy and of the militant laity. "Synthesis of all heresies," "road to atheism," "axe at the root of the faith," modernism threatens the purity of the faith, the firmness of discipline, the holiness of the Church. The intervention appears from the beginning severe, strong, decisive, providential. The decree of the Holy Office Lamentabili of 3 July 1907, by which 65 erroneous propositions are condemned (for the most part drawn from the works of Loisy), preludes the masterly encyclical Pascendi Dominici gregis (1v.), 7 Sept. 1907). The pontifical document is divided into two parts: in the first an exhaustive and most lucid exposition of modernism; in the second a close-knit and crushing critique that demonstrates all its falsity and denounces its disastrous consequences for the faith, for the Church, for the world. The encyclical was answered with violent and virulent resistance: the struggle continued for years and had hours of anguish and tears for Pius X, who at times saw himself misunderstood and mistreated even in sectors so close to him. In the long affair there was no lack of the exaggerations of the ultra-zealous and the malevolence of hypocrites; not always and not all the combatants knew how to keep themselves free from partisan passions and intemperance of form. But it is by now established in history that "even in the most difficult periods, the harshest, the gravest with responsibility, Pius X gave proof of that enlightened prudence that never fails in the saints" (Pius XII).
VI. PIUS X AS LEGISLATOR
Since the time of Sixtus V (const. Immensa, 22 Jan. 1587) the dicasteries of the Roman Curia had undergone partial adjustments. Events, especially after 1870, made a complete and general revision necessary. Welcoming with good will the desire of many bishops, mindful of the experiences he had had as bishop and patriarch, P. X himself set down the guiding lines of the reform, which he entrusted to the wisdom of a cardinalatial commission composed of seasoned jurists. On 29 June 1908 he published the const. Sapienti consilio with annexed common and special norms for the functioning of the Sacred Congregations, the tribunals and the offices. To the institution of marriage, the foundation of the Christian family, P. X devoted special care: the const. Provida (18 Jan. 1906), concerning the validity of mixed marriages, and the celebrated decree Ne temere of the Sacred Congregation of the Council (8 Aug. 1907), concerning the juridical form of betrothals and of marriage. These were partial measures in anticipation of a broader and more universal work. The need to gather into a single text the countless prescriptions scattered throughout the decretals had long been felt, especially by those who had to apply the law to pastoral care. P. X, recognizing it as "only too necessary," was unwilling to defer it any longer. The motu proprio Arduum sane: de Ecclesiae legibus in unum redigendis dates from 19 March 1904, by which the commission for study and compilation was instituted. He followed the immense labor, one might say, day by day: he advised, exhorted, encouraged, decided. Bishops, theologians and jurists were consulted. Age-old questions were confronted, obstacles of various kinds were overcome, the manifold practice of life was reconciled with the severe demands of the law. The most daring work, although it saw the light only on 27 May 1917, under Benedict XV, always remains "the masterpiece of the pontificate of P. X" (Pius XII), and is [P. X] tamen unus huius codicis habendus est auctor (Benedict XV). He had, moreover, begun with two constitutions of historic value: Commissum nobis of 20 Jan. 1904, which inflicts major excommunication on anyone who should dare to present the veto in the conclave even in the form of a simple wish, and Vacante Sede Apostolica (25 Dec. 1904), which regulates the proceedings of the conclave.
VII. HOLINESS
It emanated from him constantly. His gaze, his word, his personality expressed goodness, firmness, faith. The audiences "were a true and holy mission." And yet he aspired only to be the sovereign of himself. From this self-mastery, the victory of long years of struggle over an ardent temperament, was born the gentleness of heart that made him simple and serene and good even in the most stormy hours, amid the harshest criticisms, the most venomous calumnies, in the bitterest solitude. Among the virtues, humility appeared sovereign: he recalled on occasion his very modest origins, avoided praise and deflected it, ill tolerated applause and compliments, accepted others' opinions amiably, indeed solicited the judgment of cardinals, bishops, and collaborators, avoided giving others the slightest annoyance, showed a thousand attentions even to servants. Generous in forgiving and forgetting, indulgent toward those who erred but were not obstinate in error, inexorable against equivocations and compromises, wholly detached from every earthly good, from every form, even apparent, of favoritism, he lived and died poor, leaving it to the charity of his successor to provide for his sisters, whom he wished to remain in the shadow of their very modest condition. From his great heart came gestures of an industrious, passionate, heroic charity, especially as pontiff toward the poor, orphans, the fallen, and above all for those struck by the Sicilian-Calabrian earthquake of 1908. A man of intense prayer, while still alive he enjoyed extraordinary gifts and supernatural powers. His blessing worked healings several times, even at a distance, which had something of the unhoped-for, if not indeed of the miraculous, healings that he humbly declared were due "to the power of the supreme keys." It was widely believed that he read with certainty into the depths of the soul and foresaw the future with a light that surpassed human intelligence.
VIII. DEATH AND GLORY
On June 2, 1914, Pius X entered his 80th year. His constitution, which had always remained robust despite the heart alarm he had first felt back in the distant period of his life in Venice, now showed signs of weariness. On the political horizon clouds portending a storm were gathering. The Pope foresaw the "great war," as he kept repeating to those close to him. The assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria, was the spark. The Pontiff tried in vain to avert the war. Having taken to his bed for a slight bronchitis on the afternoon of Aug. 15, on the 19th he suddenly worsened, and at one fifteen on Aug. 20 his soul entered eternal peace. He had reigned eleven years and 16 days. The moved world bowed reverently before the Pontiff's body: "History will make of him a great Pope, the Church will make of him a great Saint," it was said even then. In the silence of the Vatican Grottoes the tomb became an unceasing destination for pilgrims and suppliants. By unanimous vote of all 22 cardinals residing in Rome, in Feb. 1923 the Cause of beatification and canonization was promoted, which, once the ordinary processes on the fame of holiness were concluded, was introduced on Feb. 12, 1943. After the apostolic processes were subsequently drawn up, the discussion turned to the heroicity of virtue, which was proclaimed by decree of Sept. 3, 1950. Once the two miracles required by the sacred canons had been sanctioned by the authority of the Church, on March 4, 1951 Pius XII promulgated the decree of tuto procedi posse. On June 3, 1951, on the parvis of the Vatican Basilica, Pius X was proclaimed blessed. Countless extraordinary graces have led to the prompt resumption of the Cause (Nov. 13, 1951) for the supreme honor of the altars. The remains of the Blessed rest beneath the altar table of the Presentation, the first on the left for one entering the basilica of St. Peter. Also in the Basilica, above the door known as "of the mosaics," Pier Enrico Astorri of Piacenza has sculpted in marble the Pontiff in the majesty of the Triregnum, his arms opened in supreme sacrifice of himself; the monument was inaugurated in 1923. — See plate CIV.
