Pius X, Saint


Pius X, Saint,

1835–1914, pope (1903–14), an Italian named Giuseppe Sarto, b. near Treviso; successor of Leo XIIILeo XIII,
1810–1903, pope (1878–1903), an Italian (b. Carpineto, E of Rome) named Gioacchino Pecci; successor of Pius IX. Ordained in 1837, he earned an excellent reputation as archbishop of Perugia (1846–77), and was created cardinal in 1853.
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 and predecessor of Benedict XVBenedict XV,
1854–1922, pope (1914–22), an Italian (b. Genoa) named Giacomo della Chiesa; successor of Pius X. He was made archbishop of Bologna in 1907 and cardinal in 1914, two months before his election as pope.
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. Ordained in 1858, he became bishop of Mantua (1884), a cardinal (1893), and patriarch of Venice (1893). Soon after his accession to the Holy See he found himself in major conflict with the French government over the latter's regulation of church affairs. The government finally decreed (1905) the separation of church and state and sequestered church property. Pius was more conciliatory toward the Italian government, relaxing the church's strictures on participation by Roman Catholics in political life. In the decree Lamentabili (1907) and the encyclical Pascendi (1907), Pius condemned religious modernismmodernism,
in religion, a general movement in the late 19th and 20th cent. that tried to reconcile historical Christianity with the findings of modern science and philosophy.
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, and disciplinary measures were taken to stamp out what he called the "synthesis of all heresies." The pope set up a commission to recodify the canon law; he encouraged the use of plainsong; he set up the new Roman breviary as the norm for the whole church; he made the Roman congregations more efficient; he set up a commission to translate the Bible anew; and he regularized the position of the hierarchies in many countries. Known for his interest in the poor, he was widely venerated during his lifetime. He was canonized (1954) by Pius XII. Feast: Sept. 3.

Bibliography

See All Things in Christ: Encyclicals and Selected Documents of Saint Pius X (ed. by V. A. Yzermans, 1954); biographies by M. G. Dal-Gal (tr. 1954), L. von Matt and N. Vian (tr. 1955, repr. 1963), and J. O. Smit (tr. 1965).