8/21 St. Pius X Feast Day

St. Pius X
Motto “renew all things in Christ”

[1903-1914]

Was Pope during an 11 year period, soon followed by WWI,
when the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta
completed the very important book “The Hours of the Passion”

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Several witnesses relate that one day Father Annibale came to the house of Luisa more content than ever, and said that he had brought this book, “The Hours of the Passion”, to the Holy Father, Saint Pious X, who had received him several times in private audience. Father Annibale was reading him one of the Hours (that of the Crucifixion), when the Pope interrupted, saying: “Not this way, Father, but kneeling one must read. It is Jesus Christ that is speaking.” Finally, Father Annibale, as Censor of the writings, obtained the Imprimatur from His Excellency the Archbishop of Trani for the volumes written by Luisa (at that time there were already nineteen)

In the year of 1903 (the same year Leo XIII died and Saint Pius X was made Pope on August 9th), Luisa completed the 1st volume of her life, up to the point on February 28, 1899, when she was given the obedience to write.

Highlights: Pius X said that the motto of his pontificate would be “instaurare omnia in Christo”

He advised all (Decr. S. Congr. Concil., 20 Dec., 1905) to receive Holy Communion frequently and, if possible, daily, dispensing the sick from the obligation of fasting to the extent of enabling them to receive Holy Communion twice each month, and even oftener (Decr. S. Congr. Rit., 7 Dec., 1906).

By the Decree “Quam Singulari” (15 Aug., 1910), he recommended that the first Communion of children should not be deferred too long after they had reached the age of discretion.

He published, 22 November, 1903, a Motu Proprio on sacred music in churches, and at the same time ordered the authentic Gregorian Chant to be used everywhere.

In the Encyclical “Acerbo nimis” (15 April, 1905) he treated of the necessity of catechismal instruction, not only for children, but also for adults.

On 8 Sept., 1907, there appeared the famous Encyclical “Pascendi”, which expounds and condemns the system of Modernism.

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An excerpt from the EWTN website on St. Pius X:

. . . The pope has at heart above all things the purity of the faith . . . In few years Pius X has secured great, practical, and lasting results in the interest of Catholic doctrine and discipline, and that in the face of great difficulties of all kinds. Even non-Catholics recognize his apostolic spirit, his strength of character, the precision of his decisions, and his pursuit of a clear and explicit programme.