Pope Pius X, Our Lady
and the
Saints
Compiled by CFN
Like his two immediate predecessors, Pius IX who defined the Immaculate Conception, and Leo XIII who advanced so zealously the recitation of the Rosary, Pius X will be remembered as the Pope who brought to the fore the doctrine of the mediation of Mary as Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix with Her Son, Christ Jesus, of the whole human race.
In his Encyclical Ad diem ilam, February 2, 1904, on the fiftieth anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, Pius X styled Mary the princeps largiendarum gratarum ministra ("the principal handmaid in the distribution of graces"), and enjoined on all Christians the devotion to the Immaculate Mother of God.
In the decree of the Holy Office On Indulgences, June 26, 1913, he approved the pious custom of adding to the name of Jesus the words: Matris suae coredemptricis beatae Mariae ("of His Mother Mary, our Co-Re- demptrix"), and on January 22, 1914, the words: "Co-Re- demptrix of the human race. He favored the Marian Congress, celebrated in Rome, December 12, 1904, with an advanced special message of welcome Ad omnium instaurationem, dated November 21, 1904. He looked upon the coronation of the image of the Immaculate Conception in the choir of St. Peter's Basilica, as a fitting culmination of the Golden Jubilee of the solemn proclamation of this beautiful mystery.
In 1908, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Apparition at Lourdes, the Pope sent Cardinal Lecot as his personal legate to Lourdes and granted special indulgences to all those who, in the City of Rome, took part on the eighth day of any month in special devotions in honor of Mary's Immaculate Conception. He ex- tended the Feast of the Apparition at Lourdes (February 11) to the whole world. He heartily approved the idea of collecting all documents pertaining to the Immaculate Conception, Exposuti Nobis, August 15, 1904, and perpetuated the memory of the Golden Jubilee of the Apparition by having a beautiful replica of the grotto of Lourdes erected in the Vatican Gardens. He endorsed (1909) the Litany of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and rejoiced to see Belgium consecrated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Beatifications and Canonizations
Many Saints were canonized and Servants of God beatified during the pontificate of Pope Pius X, e.g., Saints Alexander and Saulus (December 11, 1904), Joseph Oriol (May 20, 1909), and the two Redemptorists, Gerard Majella (December 11, 1904) and Clement Hofbaurer (May 20, 1909).
Among the better known Blessed whose beatification ceremonies actually took place under the auspices of Pope Pius X were Blessed Gasper (Casper) de Bufalo, founder of the Congregation of the Precious Blood; Blessed John Vianney, Curé of Ars; the Capuchin Martyrs Blessed Agathangel of Vendome and Blessed Casian of Nantes; Blessed Joan of Arc, "Maid of Orleans"; Blessed John Eudes, founder the Congregation of Jesus and Mary (Eudists) and the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Good Shepherd Nuns); Blessed Francis de Capillas, the Dominican Chinese Proto-Martyr; and Blessed Bellesini, the Augustinian.
Among those who causes for beatification were introduced were the Venerable Servants of God: Joseph Cafasso, founder the Institute of Divine Providence; Bernardette Soubirous (Bernadette of Lourdes); Louis de Marillac, co-foundress (with Saint Vincent de Paul) of the Sisters of Charity; Vitrus Michael of Netta, Re- demptorists priest; Benevenute Bambozzi, Franciscan-Conventional priest of Osimo; and Sister Mary of the Incarnation, foundress of the first convent of Ursalines in Quebec.[1]
Saint Pius X's Sermon at Joan of Arc's Beatification
In his sermon for the beatification of Blessed (now Saint) Joan of Arc in 1909, Pope Saint Pius X spoke of the heroism of Blessed Joan and contrasted it with the timidity of so many Catholics in our day: "In our time more than ever" said Pius, "the chief strength of the wicked lies in the cowardice and weakness of good men ... All the strength of Satan's reign is due to the easy- going weakness of Catholics. Oh! If I might ask the Divine Redeemer, as the prophet Zachary did in spirit: What are those wounds in the midst of Thy hands? The answer would not be doubtful: With these was I wounded in the house of them that loved Me. I was wounded by My friends, who did nothing to defend Me, and who, on every occasion, made themselves the accomplices of My adversaries. And this reproach can be leveled at the weak and timid Catholics of all countries."[2]
Footnotes:
1) This section is taken from Symposium on the Life and Work of Pope Pius X, entry by Father Raphael M. Huber, O.F.M., Conv., S.T.D., "Biographical Sketch of Pope Pius X," (Washington, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 1946), pp. 18-9, 38-9.
2) Quoted from The Mystical Body of Christ in the Modern World, Father Denis Fahey, (Dublin: Regina Publications, 1935), p. 277.
Reprinted from the August 2003 edition
of
Catholic Family News
MPO Box 743 * Niagara Falls, NY
14302
905-871-6292 * cfnjv@localnet.com
CFN is published once a month (12 times per year) •
Subscription: $28.00 a year.
Request sample copy