From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   August 21st - Pope St. Pius X   
      
   Baron von Pastor, the noted papal historian, said of St. Pius X:   
      
   "He was one of those chosen few men whose personality was irresistible.   
   Everyone   
   was moved by his simplicity and his angelic kindness.  Yet it was something   
   more   
   that carried him into all hearts; and that something was the feeling that   
   all   
   those admitted to his presence had a deep conviction of coming face to face   
   with   
   a saint."   
      
   This future Pontiff was born Giuseppe Sarto, son of a messenger and postman   
   in   
   the village of Riese in Venetia, in AD 1835.  The second of ten children,   
   his   
   family was poor, but he was able to obtain an education in a local   
   elementary   
   school, a grammar school, bursary, and then finally entered the seminary at   
   Padua.   
      
   Giuseppe Sarto was Ordained at age 23, and spent 17 years in pastoral   
   ministry.   
   He went on to become Canon at Treviso, and in AD 1884 he was consecrated   
   Bishop   
   of Mantua.  In AD 1892 Leo XIII promoted Giuseppe as Cardinal-priest, and he   
   was   
   promoted to the See of Venice, as patriarch. When Leo XIII passed in AD   
   1903, it   
   was assumed that Rampolla Cardinal del Tindaro would succeed him.  However,   
   Emperor Joseph of Austria "vetoed" the choice (the last time this would   
   happen).   
   Ballots processed, and four ballots later Sarto was elected.   
      
   Pope Pius' first action in 'Commissum Nobis' was to outlaw secular   
   interventions   
   in papal elections.  He then had to deal with attempted resecularization in   
   France.  The Concordat of AD 1801 was condemned, and a separation of Church   
   and   
   State imposed.  In a pair of dignified but forceful encyclicals [Vehementer   
   nos   
   and Gravissimum], the Pope condemned the separation as well as the   
   Associations   
   Cultuelles.  This was established to liquidate ecclesiastical properties in   
   France.  The separation continued, but at last the Church had free-reign to   
   administer it's own affairs without secular intervention.   
      
   His first encyclical, 'Instuarare Omnia in Christo', dealt with restoration   
   of   
   all things in Christ.  To this end he issued several "wishes": daily   
   communication of all the faithful is possible, reading of the Bible, the age   
   of   
   1st communion lowered to the age of reason (7), and easing the process of   
   administering communion to the sick.  He also issued decrees necessary to   
   curb   
   musical abuses and reinsert the use of plainchant in the Mass for the laity,   
   pushed to complete a revision of canon law (1917), and reorganized   
   tribunals,   
   congregations, and offices of the Curia.  In addition, he established the   
   necessity of revising and correcting Jerome's Vulgate Bible as well as   
   founding   
   the Institute Biblique under the Jesuits to further Biblical studies.   
      
   Public knowledge of Saint Pius X is strongest when dealing with his   
   condemnation   
   of Modernism.  Abbes Loisy and Duchesne, and Fr. George Terrill along with   
   others in Western Europe had sought to "update" Biblical scholarship in   
   light of   
   the new scientific and rational methodologies present in post-enlightenment   
   academia.  This attempt was focused in a rebuttal of a certain book of the   
   German Protestant scholar Harnack, but in writing L'Evangelie et L'Eglise   
   Loisy   
   laid a strong foundation for Modernism's Bible and Tradition destroying   
   philosophy.   
      
   Saint Pius X's 'Lamentabile Sane' and 'Paschendi Dominici Gregis' set out   
   the   
   errors of Modernism and its secular underpinnings.  The moans and cries of   
   "Papal Oppression" of academic freedom and denunciations of Clericalism   
   lasted   
   for sometime, but after Loisy's excommunication in AD 1907 and the Oath   
   Against   
   Modernism required by St. Pius X until AD 1962, stemmed the tide of this   
   heresy   
   for decades.   
      
   Pope St. Pius X had to deal with many issues, and many liberal governments,   
   during his pontificate.  However, his devotion to restoring all things in   
   Christ   
   endeared him to all the faithful.  Archduke Ferdinand was killed, and the   
   proximate cause of the Great War issued forth conflict.  Though he prayed   
   desperately for peace, the war came, and it killed him.  On August 19th,   
   fifteen   
   days after the war began Pope Saint Pius X contracted bronchitis and died.   
      
   Pope Saint Pius X was canonized in 1954, the first pope so Canonized since   
   Pope   
   St. Pius V in AD 1672.   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Humility, to be true, must be always accompanied by charity; that is,   
   loving,   
   seeking, and accepting humiliations to please God, and to become more like   
   Jesus   
   Christ; to do otherwise, would be to practice it in the manner of the   
   heathen.   
   -St. France de Sales   
      
   Bible Quote   
   12 Now therefore saith the Lord: Be converted to me with all your heart, in   
   fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning. (Joel 2:12)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Indulgenced Prayers   
      
   Blessed is He Who cometh in the Name of the Lord:   
   Hosanna in the highest.   
      
   Jesu, bread of life, protect us;   
   Shepherd king, do not reject us;   
   In Thy happy fold collect us,   
   And partakers of the bliss elect us,   
   Which shall never see an end.   
      
   Thou, the wisest and the mightiest,   
   Who us here with food delightest,   
   Seat us at Thy banquet brightest   
   With the blessed Thou invitest   
   An eternal feast to spend.   
   Amen.   
      
   As the hart panteth after the fountains of water,   
   so my soul panteth after Thee, O God.   
      
   Come, O Lord, and do not delay.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)