It is 1:30 a.m., Central European Time (GMT + 1). In a neutral Italy amidst a continent ravaged by war, the bells are about to toll all through the City and throughout the world.
Exactly at this moment, exactly 100 years ago, the great Pope who still lives in our hearts, the simple parroco
Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto
SAINT PIUS X
gave his soul up to the LORD he had always served faithfully, leaving the travails of the earth for eternity in the Church Triumphant, in sempiternal glory.
Thank you, Saint Pius X! Please, intercede for us in Heaven above, that we may accomplish the words of the Apostle to the Gentiles you made your lifelong aspiration: "to restore all things in Christ"!
For the past 8 years, we have strived to cover each major centennial of Pope Saint Pius' amazing holy work for the Restoration of All Things in Christ in his relatively short but highly consequential pontificate. No one since Saint Pius V, and no one after him, has accomplished a similar global work of true Catholic reformation, that is always based on Our Lord Jesus Christ himself. In the encyclical in which he presented his pontifical program, Pius X was clear:
And in eleven years, he did it. And his work was so magnificent that the "wickedness so characteristic of our time" that he mentioned above was almost unbelievably kept at bay from the Church during the bloodiest period of human history in the 50 years that followed his death, and that all good things that subsist in the Church after the debacle of the past half-century are imbued with his concern and passed through his hands. It is true that we often see the glass half-empty when we view the Church of our age, and the terrible years of her passion in the past half-century, during which, as one of his successors admitted, "the smoke of Satan enter[ed] into the Temple of God" -- but we must instead glorify God for the great man whose truly Catholic reforms built up the defenses that kept her integrity safe during her time of need. A sane liturgical movement, a strong Catholic identity, a safe doctrinal environment, an unsurpassed time of Eucharistic devotion, a rationalization of the law, the promotion of sound sacred music, the acceleration of the global expansion of missionary activities and the creation of numerous dioceses in mission areas, and the greatest vocational explosion in modern history beginning in his pontificate -- all accomplishments of the first pontificate of the 20th century, achievements which would collapse (but not totally!) only in the 1960s. So, instead of lamenting the recent past, we must celebrate the almost unsurpassed influence of one holy man whose work on this earth was a gift for God's Church, and whose eternal reward began exactly 100 years ago: Happy Birthday in Heaven, Saint Pius X, and thank you for everything.
Transcribed below is the article on the death of Pope Pius X published in the August 22, 1914, edition of The Tablet, with links to our various posts and series on several aspects of the Sarto Pontificate. The text also provides a general tone of how the holy Pope was viewed -- loved and revered in an unsurpassed way -- by his contemporaries in the Church in that, the first month of what would be a long and devastating war.
Now the way to reach Christ is not hard to find: it is the Church. Rightly does Chrysostom inculcate: "The Church is thy hope, the Church is thy salvation, the Church is thy refuge." (Hom. de capto Euthropio, n. 6.) It was for this that Christ founded it, gaining it at the price of His blood, and made it the depositary of His doctrine and His laws, bestowing upon it at the same time an inexhaustible treasury of graces for the sanctification and salvation of men. You see, then, Venerable Brethren, the duty that has been imposed alike upon Us and upon you of bringing back to the discipline of the Church human society, now estranged from the wisdom of Christ; the Church will then subject it to Christ, and Christ to God. If We, through the goodness of God Himself, bring this task to a happy issue, We shall be rejoiced to see evil giving place to good, and hear, for our gladness, " a loud voice from heaven saying: Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ." (Apoc. xii., 10.) But if our desire to obtain this is to be fulfilled, we must use every means and exert all our energy to bring about the utter disappearance of the enormous and detestable wickedness, so characteristic of our time - the substitution of man for God; this done, it remains to restore to their ancient place of honor the most holy laws and counsels of the gospel; to proclaim aloud the truths taught by the Church, and her teachings on the sanctity of marriage, on the education and discipline of youth, on the possession and use of property, the duties that men owe to those who rule the State; and lastly to restore equilibrium between the different classes of society according to Christian precept and custom. This is what We, in submitting Ourselves to the manifestations of the Divine will, purpose to aim at during Our Pontificate, and We will use all our industry to attain it. [E Supremi Apostolatus, Oct. 4, 1903]
And in eleven years, he did it. And his work was so magnificent that the "wickedness so characteristic of our time" that he mentioned above was almost unbelievably kept at bay from the Church during the bloodiest period of human history in the 50 years that followed his death, and that all good things that subsist in the Church after the debacle of the past half-century are imbued with his concern and passed through his hands. It is true that we often see the glass half-empty when we view the Church of our age, and the terrible years of her passion in the past half-century, during which, as one of his successors admitted, "the smoke of Satan enter[ed] into the Temple of God" -- but we must instead glorify God for the great man whose truly Catholic reforms built up the defenses that kept her integrity safe during her time of need. A sane liturgical movement, a strong Catholic identity, a safe doctrinal environment, an unsurpassed time of Eucharistic devotion, a rationalization of the law, the promotion of sound sacred music, the acceleration of the global expansion of missionary activities and the creation of numerous dioceses in mission areas, and the greatest vocational explosion in modern history beginning in his pontificate -- all accomplishments of the first pontificate of the 20th century, achievements which would collapse (but not totally!) only in the 1960s. So, instead of lamenting the recent past, we must celebrate the almost unsurpassed influence of one holy man whose work on this earth was a gift for God's Church, and whose eternal reward began exactly 100 years ago: Happy Birthday in Heaven, Saint Pius X, and thank you for everything.
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Transcribed below is the article on the death of Pope Pius X published in the August 22, 1914, edition of The Tablet, with links to our various posts and series on several aspects of the Sarto Pontificate. The text also provides a general tone of how the holy Pope was viewed -- loved and revered in an unsurpassed way -- by his contemporaries in the Church in that, the first month of what would be a long and devastating war.
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It is with inexpressible sorrow that we have to announce the death of the Pope.
His Holiness had so far recovered from the serious illness which attacked him last year that hopes had been entertained that he might still be spared for the welfare of the Church. But he was in his eightieth year, and there can be no question that his powers, already weakened by his illness, were still further reduced by the sorrow with which, as he said, his heart was wrung at the outbreak of the great conflict in Europe [cf. centennial of exhortation Dum Europa]. On the fourteenth of this month, His Holiness contracted a slight bronchial cold, which, though accompanied by a rise in temperature, at first gave no anxiety. On Sunday he rose as usual, but was so weak that he was ordered back to bed. But Monday [Aug. 17] night was a bad one, and on Tuesday [Aug. 18] he was so much worse that it was decided to issue bulletins morning and evening. Unfortunately, the bronchitis trouble developed, and was accompanied by increased feverishness. On Wednesday [Aug. 19] his state had become so critical, owing to a sudden relapse, that by evening death seemed imminent, and a telegram from our Rome correspondent informed us that it was "now only a question of hours." That was only too true. At half-past two on Thursday morning death came, and released the sufferer from the heavy weight of the great burden of the Supreme Pontificate.
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Pius X has passed to his reward. Yet another Pontiff on the long line of succession stretching back to the Fisherman has gone to give an account of his tremendous stewardship, and the Chair of PETER stands vacant in the midst of a worldwide Church in mourning. The news of the death of the Holy Father will have brought a sense of deep and personal loss to the millions of his spiritual subjects in every land, while outside the pale there will be multitudes who, owning no obedience to his authority, will be found to share our sorrow, and to render ungrudgingly the tribute of their veneration and sympathy. The august office of the Vicar of CHRIST is naturally one which has its claim upon the loyalty of Catholics everywhere, but in Pius X the claim was enhanced by all the attraction of a singularly lovable personality.
There was that about him which endeared him to the faithful, and caused him to be loved and revered in a way and in a measure which even transcended the affectionate and admiring homage so abundantly yielded to his immediate predecessors. The history of the Papacy may be compared to a work of music, in which each pontificate has its own dominant note, endowed with all the variety of its individuality, and woven into unity with the whole by the oneness of faith and purpose. Were we, in this the day of our bereavement, to ask what was the ruling characteristic in the life and pontificate of Pius X, we take it that the answer which would rise spontaneously from the hearts of his subjects would be expressed in the words : "He was to us a Pope like ST. PETER-a man of GOD in whom we beheld all the power and the charm of apostolic honesty and simplicity."
Therein, indeed, lay the secret of his success and of his special hold upon the veneration of Christendom. His victory was essentially the triumph of faith overcoming the world, and his skill was that saintly candour of the apostolic spirit, against which the subtlety of the sceptic and the hate of the persecutor measured their strength in vain. We are still standing too close to the chief facts of his reign to gauge aright their far-reaching importance, and it is only by endeavouring to put ourselves in the place of the future historian of the Church that we can hope to see them in their true perspective.
-Thus considered, the pontificate which has just ended will be found to compress within its comparatively short limits a number of events which can hardly fail to be classed as notable landmarks in the Church's history.
The primary function of ST. PETER is to confirm his brethren with that unfailing faith for which the REDEEMER has not prayed in vain.
It was in this, the highest and most essential of his duties — the defence of the Catholic faith — that Pius X stood before the Christian world as the vigilant and invincible guardian. Like many of his illustrious predecessors, sentinels in their day on the watch-towers of Israel, he was called upon to deal with heresy, not merely as infecting a particular group of persons or places, but as wafting its contagion in a thought movement which, though influencing only a given type of mind, and a comparatively small number, was naturally more than local. Modernism had never the hold which Pelagianism had in the' fourth century, nor had it a tithe of the intellectual and spiritual resources or prestige which Jansenism had in the sixteenth. Not the less, its principles and its ethos were utterly subversive of Christian faith and dogma, and when stripped of its manifold disguises, it proved to be merely rationalism masked by a false mysticism, and in reality about the poorest and shallowest substitute for Christianity that could well be foisted on any thinking mind. Its condemnation by the Holy See was prompt, and absolute, and unfaltering. It was part of the zeal of Pius X that the evasive and underground methods peculiar to the heresy were met by disciplinary measures so complete and far-reaching that their corrective or protective effect could not fail to make itself felt in every diocese of Christendom. The history of the Church bears witness that no movement so branded and banned by the Holy See can have any future inside the pale of Catholicism. [cf. our long series on the Centennial of his landmark Encyclical Letter Pascendi Dominici Gregis, also covering its several related documents as well as Notre Charge Apostolique]It is especially in these days, when the sects around us are struggling in vain to preserve for their systems a semblance of authority in matters of religion, and when, amid Kikuyus of different forms, earnest and truth-loving souls amongst their members are craving for some assured and authoritative guidance, that the Catholic Church, by the mouth of Pius X, has given to the world the proof once more that she alone, like her Divine Master, knows how to speak "as one having authority." That is the service which the late PONTIFF, in the fulfillment of his august charge, has rendered to Christendom, and we know not any which could be greater, or more precious, or more salutary, or one which could have been accomplished more thoroughly, and faithfully, and successfully.
In the momentous crisis of the Church of France [the 1905 Separation, with unilateral abrogation of the Concordat and expropriation of almost all Church property - cf our post on centennial of Vehementer Nos], we know how Pius X, by his fearless non possumus, proved himself not less the defender of the Church's liberty. Thanks to his foresight and to the admirable loyalty of the episcopate, the French Church has emerged from her trial with honour and liberty, and with the promise of renewed strength and prosperity. Besides these services to faith and freedom, there are a number of great works and undertakings which the future historian will associate with the Pontificate which has just come to a close. There has been a reform of the Liturgy [a truly Catholic reform in the spirit of Dom Guéranger's original Liturgical Movement from this man greatly inspired by the French Catholicism of Jeanne d'Arc, the Curé d'Ars, Cardinal Pie, and Solesmes - cf. our series on the centennial of Divinu Afflatu] which has affected the daily round of prayer and praise in all Catholic Christendom — a reform involving changes of a magnitude such as have not been felt for long centuries in the life of the Church. There has been the reform of the Canon Law, an enterprise which, when completed, is destined to strengthen in every land the Church's constitution and its administrative working, which means so much for the boon of peace in its strength. There has been the reform of the Roman tribunals, whose machinery bears upon the interests of the Church in every part of the Christian world: There has been the revocation of the English-speaking countries from the missionary status, which they have held for centuries under the Propaganda, and their incorporation under the normal government of the Church. There has been the reconstruction of the historic Court of the Rota, familiar to students of history as the one before which were pleaded the great appeals of our Bishops and clergy in pre-Reformation times. There has been the great Biblical enterprise of the bringing out of an accurate edition of the Vulgate, a colossal achievement of research for which Biblical scholars throughout the world will be debtors to the Holy See, and one which English Catholics will always remember with special satisfaction, as having been fittingly entrusted to a priest and scholar of their nation, whom Pius X, to their singular joy, has raised to the dignity of the sacred purple. And above these great constructive works there is yet one, pre-eminently spiritual, one dear to the heart of Pius X and to the Sacred Heart of his Master—the promoting of early and frequent Communion by the children of the Church. It is here especially that the late PONTIFF has reaped a rich spiritual harvest over the face of Christendom. In all lands millions of child souls, radiant in all the innocence of their tender age, have been taught to find their joy and their safety in blessed union with the Lover of little children in Holy Communion. From all nations have come forth abundant and grateful testimonies which justify the wisdom and spiritual insight of Pius X in this marvellous Eucharistic revival [cf. our post on centennial of Sacra Tridentina Synodus, on frequent communion], and assuredly in the sight of the recording angels, who see the face of the FATHER in Heaven, the work of child Communion will not be accounted as the least among the glories of his Chief Pastorate. [And, closely related to the renewal of children's spiritual life, the promulgation of the Catechism of Christian Doctrine, the "Catechism of St. Pius X", cf our post on its centennial.]With these and other acts and annals of the late POPE before him, who shall say that he who comes in the future to write the Church history of our times will not find wherewith to mark the late pontificate as one which will take its place as a notable period of fruitful and far-reaching reform and beneficence. Amid the strife of nations, and the glare of the red war clouds which have hung over the sunset of his reign, we shall remember Pius X as the saintly POPE and the good pastor, the man of peace, the zealous lover of souls, whose whole life and work has been an unbroken record of good doing.
"Transit benefaciendo!" [Acts. 10:38] In this the hour of her sorrow the Church may well lift up her heart in gratitude to GOD for having given to her so good and so great a Pontiff in the hour of her need, and pray that such another, in GOD'S mercy, may be vouchsafed to her to guide, with strong and steady hand, the barque of PETER in the years which lie before us.
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We also repost below the full address of Pope Pius XII following the canonization of his holy Predecessor, whose translation was published by us earlier this year.
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| Statue in the Church of San Salvador, Venice ____________________________________ |
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE PIUS XII
[Quest'ora di fulgente trionfo...] This hour of splendid triumph which God, Who lifts up the lowly, has arranged and as it were hastened in order to set His seal on the marvelous elevation of His faithful servant Pius X in the supreme glory of the altars, fills Our heart with joy, a joy in which you, Venerable Brothers and Beloved Sons, share abundantly by your presence here. We offer heartfelt thanks then to God in His goodness for allowing Us to take part in this extraordinary event; all the more so since, for perhaps the first time in the history of the Church, the formal canonization of a Pope is proclaimed by one who had the privilege of serving him in the Roman Curia.
This day is blessed and memorable, not only for Us, who count it among the happiest days of Our pontificate, to which Providence has allotted so many sorrows and cares, but also for the entire Church, which, gathered around Us in spirit, rejoices all together in a great thrill of religious feeling.
This wonderful evening the endearing name of Pius X, pronounced in the most diverse accents, spans the whole earth; it resounds in enduring testimony to the fruitful presence of Christ in His Church, by evoking everywhere aspirations to sanctity, great graces of faith, of purity, of devotion to the Holy Eucharist. God, Who rewards with liberality, bears witness to His servant’s lofty sanctity in exalting him. It was this sanctity, even more than the supreme Office he held, that made Pius X an outstanding hero of the Church, and as such today the Saint raised up by Providence for our times.
Now it is precisely in this light that We wish you to contemplate the gigantic and yet humble figure of the holy Pope, so that when the shadows of this memorable day fall and the cries of the immense hosanna fade away, the solemn rite of his canonization may linger to bless your souls and help in saving the world.
1. He solemnly announced the programme of his pontificate in his very first Encyclical (E supremi of Oct. 4, 1903) in which he declared that his only aim was “to re-establish all things in Christ” (Eph. 1:10), that is, to sum up, to restore all things to unity in Christ. But where is the road that leads to Christ, he asked himself, looking in compassion at the hesitating, wandering souls of his time. The answer, valid yesterday as well as today and always, is: the Church! His primary aim then, unceasingly pursued till death, was to make the Church ever more effectually suitable and ready to receive the movement of souls toward Jesus Christ. With this aim, he conceived the bold undertaking of recasting the body of church law in such wise as to give the Church a more ordered life, greater certainty and flexibility of movement, such, as was demanded by an age typified by growing dynamism and complexity. It is surely true that this work, which he himself called “truly an arduous task,” was consonant with his eminent practical sense and the vigour of his character. Nevertheless the ultimate reason for his undertaking this difficult task is not, it seems, to be found only in the temperament of the man. The well-spring of the legislative work of Pius X is to be looked for above all in his personal sanctity, in his profound personal conviction that the reality of God, which he experienced in a life of constant union, is the source and basis of all order, all justice, all law on earth. Where God is, there is order, justice and law; and conversely, all just order safeguarded by law manifests the existence of God. But what institution here below ought to demonstrate this relationship between God and law more clearly than the Church, the mystical body of Christ Himself? God has blessed abundantly this work of the Holy Pontiff, so that the Code of canon law will remain for future ages the great monument of his pontificate and he himself will justly be hailed the providential Saint of our age.
Would that this spirit of justice and law, which Pius X gave witness to and exemplified for the modern world, could penetrate the conference halls of nations, where the most serious problems affecting the whole human family are discussed, particularly the method of banishing forever the fear of terrifying cataclysms and of guaranteeing for all peoples a lasting happy era of tranquility and peace.
2. In the second of his distinguished accomplishments Pius X is revealed as the indomitable champion of the Church and the providential Saint of our times. In sometimes dramatic circumstances this accomplishment resembled the struggle of a giant in defence of a priceless treasure: the internal unity of the Church in her innermost foundation, the faith. Even from his childhood years Divine Providence was preparing the Saint in his humble family, built upon authority, good habits, and the exact practice of the faith. No doubt every other Pontiff would by virtue of the grace of state have fought and repulsed the assaults which were aimed at the very foundation of the Church. But we must recognize that the perspicuity and strength with which Pius X carried on the victorious struggle against the errors of Modernism, testify to the heroic degree with which the virtue of faith burned in his saintly heart. Uniquely concerned that the inheritance of God be preserved intact for the flock confided to his care, the great Pontiff knew no weakness when dealing with persons of dignity or authority; nor did he manifest vacillation when confronted with alluring but false doctrines within or without the Church; nor did he betray fear lest he bring upon himself personal affronts and unjust interpretations of his pure intentions. He had the clear conviction that he was fighting for the most holy cause of God and souls. The words which the Lord addressed to the Apostle Peter are literally verified in him: “I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not, and you.. . will confirm your brethren” (Luke 22:32). The promise and the command of Christ once again instil in the indefectible rock of one of His Vicars the invincible courage of an athlete. It is right that the Church by conferring upon him the supreme glory in this hour and in this very place where the ever lustrous glory of Peter has shone forth for centuries, thus uniting both one and the other in a single exaltation, should offer to Pius X her gratitude and at the same time invoke his intercession that she may be spared new conflicts of the same nature. The subject then under consideration, namely, the preservation of the close alliance between faith and science, is so noble a good for all humanity, that this second great achievement of the saintly Pontiff exercises a notable influence even beyond the Catholic world.
Any theory, such as Modernism, which separates faith and science in their source and in their object by opposing one to the other, produces in these two vital areas a schism which is so pernicious “that a little is more than death.” This consequence has been actually observed. Man, who at the turn of the century was already divided within himself and yet labouring under the delusion that he possessed his unity under the shallow appearances of harmony and happiness, based upon a purely earthly progress, seemed to be rent asunder under the impact of a reality which was far different.
With watchful gaze Pius X observed the advent of this spiritual calamity of the modern world, this bitter delusion which especially affected the cultured classes. He perceived how such an apparent faith, that is, a faith not founded upon the revelation of God, but rooted in a purely human soil, would lure many into atheism. Likewise he recognized the fatal destiny of a science, which contrary to nature and in voluntary limitation, interdicted the way to absolute Truth and Good, leaving to man, deprived of God and confronted with the invisible obscurity in which he found all being clothed, only the attitude of anguish or arrogance.
The Saint met this deadly evil with the only possible real salvation: Catholic and Biblical truth, the truth of faith, accepted as “reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1) towards God and His revelation. By thus coordinating faith and science, faith as the supernatural extension and at times confirmation of science, and science as the way which leads to faith, Pius X restored to Christians unity and peace of soul, which are the inviolable premises of life.
If today there are many who, impelled as it were by the emptiness and affliction of their abandonment, have turned to this truth and have realized it in the firm possession of the Church, they owe a debt of gratitude for this to the foresight and achievements of Pius X. In fact both believers, who enjoy the full light of truth, and those who sincerely seek truth are obligated to him for protecting truth from error. For others his firm attitude in regard to error may still remain a stone of scandal; in reality it is the ultimate service of charity rendered by a Saint, as Head of the Church, to all humanity.
3. Sanctity, which was the inspiration and directing force of the aforementioned undertaking of Pius X, is still more clearly discernible in his personal life. Before applying it to others, he put into practice in his own life his programme of unifying all things in Christ. First as a humble parish priest, then as bishop, and finally as Supreme Pontiff he was intimately convinced that the sanctity to which God called him was priestly sanctity. For what sanctity is more pleasing to God in a priest of the New Law than that which belongs to him as representative of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest, Who left to His Church in the holy Sacrifice of the Mass a memorial for all time and a perpetual renovation of His Sacrifice on the Cross, until He shall come for the last judgment (I Cor. 11:24-26); and Who in the Sacrament of the Blessed Eucharist has given Himself as the food of the soul: “He that eateth this bread shall live forever” (In. 6 :58).
A Priest, above all in the Eucharistic ministry: this is the most faithful portrayal of St. Pius X. To serve the mystery of the Blessed Eucharist as a priest, and to fulfill the command of Our Saviour “Do this for a commemoration of Me” (Luke 22:19), was his goal. From the day of his sacred ordination until his death as Pope, he knew no other path than this in order to arrive at heroism in his love of God and to make a wholehearted return to that Redeemer of the world, Who by means of the Blessed Eucharist poured out the wealth of His divine Love on men” (Council of Trent, Sess. XIII, chap. 2). One of the most expressive proofs of his consciousness of his priesthood was the extreme care he took to renew the dignity of divine worship. Overcoming the prejudices springing from an erroneous practice, he resolutely promoted frequent, and even daily, Communion of the faithful, and unhesitatingly led children to the banquet of the Lord, and offered them to the embrace of the God hidden on the altars. Then, the Spouse of Christ experienced a new Springtime of Eucharistic life.
In the profound vision which he had of the Church as a Society, Pius X recognized that it was the Blessed Eucharist which had the power to nourish its intimate life substantially, and to raise it high above all other human societies. Only the Eucharist, in which God gives Himself to man, is apt to lay the foundations of a social life worthy of those who live it, cemented more by love than by authority, rich in activity and aimed at the perfection of the individual: a life that is “hidden with Christ in God.”
What a providential example for the world of today, where earthly society is becoming more and more a mystery to itself, and is feverishly trying to rediscover its soul! Let it look, then, for its model at the Church, gathered around its altars. There in the sacrament of the Eucharist mankind really discovers and recognizes that its past, present, and future are a unity in Christ (cf. Council of Trent, l.c.). Conscious of, and strong in his solidarity with Christ and his fellow men, each member of either Society, the earthly and the supernatural one, will be enabled to draw from the altar an interior life of personal dignity and personal worth, such as today is almost lost through insistence on technology and by excessive organization of existence, of work and even play. Only in the Church, the holy Pontiff seems to repeat, and for her in the Blessed Eucharist which is ‘‘life hidden with Christ in God,” is to be found the secret and source of renewed social life.
Hence follows the grave responsibility of ministers of the altar whose duty it is to disclose to souls the saving treasure of the Eucharist. Many indeed are the activities which a priest can exercise for the salvation of the modern world; one of them, and undoubtedly the most efficacious, and the most lasting in its effects, is to act as dispenser of the Holy Eucharist, after first nourishing himself abundantly with It. His work would cease to be sacerdotal, if, even through zeal for souls, he were to put his Eucharistic vocation in a secondary place. Let priests conform their outlook to the inspired wisdom of Pius X, and let them confidently exercise their whole apostolate under the sign of the Blessed Eucharist.
Similarly let religious men and women, those who live under the same roof as Jesus Christ and are daily nourished with His body, take as a safe norm in the pursuit of the sanctity proper to their state, what the holy Pontiff once declared on an important occasion, namely, that the bonds which through their vows and community life link them with God are not to be subordinated to any other activity, however legitimate, for the good of their neighbour (cf. Letter to Gabriel Marie, Superior General of the Christian Brothers, 23 April, 1905—Pii X P. M. Act, II, 87 f.).
In the Blessed Eucharist the soul should strike roots for nourishing the interior life, which is not only a fundamental treasure of all souls consecrated to the Lord, hut also a necessity for every Christian, whom God calls to he saved. Without interior life, any activity, however praiseworthy, is debased and becomes purely mechanical action without any vitalizing effect.
The Holy Eucharist and the interior life: this is the supreme and universal lesson which Pius X, from the height of glory, teaches in this hour to all souls. As apostle of the interior life, he becomes, in the age of the machine, of technology, and of organization, the Saint and guide of men of our time.
Saint Pius X, glory of the priesthood, light and honour of the Christian people, you in whom lowliness seemed blended with greatness, severity with mildness, simple piety with profound learning; you, Pope of the Holy Eucharist and of the catechism, of unsullied faith and fearless strength, turn your gaze on holy Church, which you so loved and to which you consecrated the choicest of those treasures with which the lavish hand of the Divine Bounty had enriched your soul; obtain for her safety and steadfastness amid the difficulties and persecutions of our times; sustain this poor human race, whose sufferings you shared in so largely, those sufferings which at the end stilled the beating of your great heart; bring it about that this troubled world witness the triumph of that peace which should mean harmony among nations, brotherly accord and sincere collaboration among the different classes of society, love and charity among individual men, so that thus those ardent desires which consumed your apostolic life may become by your intercession a blessed reality, to the glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever and ever, Amen!
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*At this moment, the time in Rome is 2:30 a.m., at Central European Summer Time -- but Daylight Saving Time (Summer Time, "ora legale") would only be established in Italy in 1916.
