5 MAY – SAINT PIUS V (Pope and Confessor)

Michele Ghislieri was born at Bosco, near Alexandria in Lombardy in 1504 to the poor but noble Bolognese family of the Ghislieri. At the age of 14 he entered the Order of Friar Preachers and became remarkable for his patience, deep humility, great mortifications, love of prayer and religious discipline, and most ardent zeal for the honour of God. He applied himself to the study of philosophy and theology with so much success that for many years he taught them in a manner that gained him universal praise. He preached the word of God in many places, and produced much fruit. For a long period he held with dauntless courage the office of Inquisitor and, at the risk of his life, preserved many cities from the then prevalent heresy.

After ordination as a priest in 1528 taught theology and philosophy and became distinguished as a preacher. Pope Paul IV who esteemed and loved Pius on account of his great virtues, made him bishop of Nepi and Sutri and, two years later, numbered him among the Cardinal Priests of the Roman Church. Having been translated by Pius IV to the Church of Mendovi in Piedmont, and finding that many abuses had crept in, he made a visitation of the whole diocese. Having put all things in order he returned to Rome where he was entrusted with matters of the gravest importance, all of which he transacted with an apostolic impartiality and firmness. At the death of Pius IV he was, contrary to everyone’s expectation, chosen Pope in 1565. With the exception of his outward garb, he changed nothing of his manner of life. The following are the virtues in which he excelled: unremitting zeal for the propagation of the Faith, untiring efforts for the restoration of ecclesiastical discipline, assiduous vigilance in extirpating error, unfailing charity in relieving the necessities of the poor, and invincible courage in vindicating the rights of the Apostolic See.

As Pius V he implemented the decisions of the Council of Trent (1545-1563) which resulted in the publication of a new Roman Breviary, Roman Missal and Catechism of the Catholic Church. A powerful fleet having been equipped at Lepanto against Selimus, the emperor of the Turks who was flushed with the many victories he had gained, the Pontiff won the battle, not so much by arms as by prayers. Pius instituted the feast of Our Lady of Victories on the 7th of October each year, which became the feast of the Most Holy Rosary. Pope Pius V added the supplication “Help of Christians, pray for us” to the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary (the Litany of Loreto). He was beatified by Pope Clement X in 1672 and was canonised by Pope Clement XI in 1712. His body lies in a chapel in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

We have already met with the names of several Pontiffs on the Paschal Calendar. They form a brilliant constellation around our Risen Jesus who, during the period between His Resurrection and Ascension, gave to Peter, their predecessor, the Keys of the kingdom of Heaven. Anicetus, Soter. Caius, Cletus and Marcellinus held in their hands the palm of martyrdom: Leo was the only one that did not shed his blood in the cause of his Divine Master. Today, there comes before us a holy Pope who governed the Church in these latter times. He is worthy to stand amidst the Easter group of Pontiffs. Like Leo, Pius Vwas zealous in combating heresy. Like Leo, he saved his people from the barbarian yoke.

The whole life of Pius V was a combat. His pontificate fell during those troubled times when Protestantism was leading whole countries into apostasy. Italy was not a prey that could be taken by violence: artifice was therefore used in order to undermine the Apostolic See, and thus envelope the whole Christian world in the darkness of heresy. Pius, with untiring devotedness, defended the Peninsula from the danger that threatened her. Even before he was raised to the papal throne he frequently exposed his life by his zeal in opposing the preaching of false doctrines. Like Peter the Martyr, he braved every danger and was the dread of the emissaries of heresy. Placed upon the Chair of Peter, he kept the innovators in check by fear, he roused the sovereigns of Italy to energy, and, by measures of moderate severity, he drove back beyond the Alps the torrent that would have swept Christianity from Europe, had not the Southern States thus opposed it.

From that time forward, Protestantism has never made any further progress: it has been wearing itself out by intestine anarchy of doctrines. We repeat it: this heresy would have laid all Europe waste, had it not been for the vigilance of the Pastor who animated the defenders of Truth to resist it where it already existed, and who set himself as a wall of brass against its invasion in the country where he himself was the Master.

Another enemy, taking advantage of the confusion caused in the West by Protestantism, organised an expedition against Europe. Italy was to be its first prey. The Ottoman fleet started from the Bosphorus. Here again, there would have been the ruin of Christendom, but for the energy of the Roman Pontiff, our Saint. He gave the alarm and called the Christian Princes to arms. Germany and France, torn by domestic factions that had been caused by heresy, turned a deaf ear to the call. Spain alone, together with Venice and the little Papal fleet, answered the Pontiff’s summons. The Cross and Crescent were soon face to face in the Gulf of Lepanto. The prayers of Pius V decided the victory in favour of the Christians, whose forces were much inferior to those of the Turks. We will have to return to this important event when we come to the Feast of the Rosary in October. But we cannot omit mentioning, today, the prediction uttered by the holy Pope on the evening of the great day of October 7th, 1571. The battle between the Christian and Turkish fleets lasted from six o’clock in the morning till late in the afternoon. Towards evening, the Pontiff suddenly looked up towards Heaven and gazed upon it in silence for a few seconds. Then turning to his attendants he exclaimed: “Let us give thanks to God! The Christians have gained the victory!” The news soon arrived at Rome and thus Europe once more owed her salvation to a Pope! The defeat at Lepanto was a blow to the Ottoman Empire from which it never recovered: its fall dates from that glorious day.

The zeal of this holy Pope for the reformation of Christian morals, his establishing the observance of the laws of discipline prescribed by the Council of Trent, and his publishing the new Breviary and Missal, have made his six years’ pontificate to be one of the richest periods of the Church’s history. Protestants themselves have frequently expressed their admiration of this vigorous opponent of the so-called Reformation. “I am surprised,” said Bacon, “that the Church of Rome has not yet canonised this great man.” Pius V did not receive this honour till about a hundred and thirty years after his death. So impartial is the Church when she has to adjudicate this highest of earthly honours even to her most revered Pastors!

Of the many miracles which attested the merits of this holy Pontiff, even during his life, we select the two following. As he was one day crossing the Vatican Piazza which is on the site of the ancient Circus of Nero, he was overcome with a sentiment of enthusiasm for the glory and courage of the martyrs who had suffered on that very spot in the first Persecution. Stooping down, he took up a handful of dust from the hallowed ground, which had been trodden by so many generations of the Christian people since the peace of Constantine. He put the dust into a cloth, which the Ambassador of Poland, who was with him, held out to receive it. When the Ambassador opened the cloth after returning to his house, he found it all saturated with blood, as fresh as though it had been that moment shed: the dust had disappeared. The faith of the Pontiff had evoked the blood of the martyrs, which thus gave testimony against the heretics that the Roman Church, in the sixteenth century, was identically the same as that for which those brave heroes and heroines laid down their lives in the days of Nero.

The heretics attempted, more than once, to destroy a life which baffled all their hopes of perverting the Faith of Italy. By a base and sacrilegious stratagem, aided as it was by an odious treachery, they put a deadly poison on the feet of the Crucifix which the Saint kept in his Oratory, and which he was frequently seen to kiss with great devotion. In the fervour of prayer, Pius was about to give this mark of love to the image of his Crucified Master when suddenly the feet of the Crucifix detached themselves from the Cross, and eluded the proffered kiss of the venerable old man. The Pontiff at once saw through the plot by which his enemies would fain have turned the life-giving Tree into an instrument of death.

In order to encourage the Faithful to follow the sacred Liturgy, we will select another interesting example from the life of this great Saint. When, lying on his bed of death and just before breathing his last, he took a parting look at the Church on Earth which he was leaving for that of Heaven. He wished to address a final prayer for the Flock which he knew was surrounded by danger. He therefore recited, but with a voice that was scarcely audible, the following stanza of the Paschal Hymn: “We beseech you, Creator of all things, that in these days of Paschal joy, you defend your people from every assault of death.”

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Pontiff of the living God, you were, while on Earth, the pillar of iron and wall of brass spoken of by the Prophet (Jeremias i. 18). Your unflinching firmness preserved the flock entrusted to you from the violence and snares of its many enemies. Far from desponding at the sight of the dangers, your courage redoubled, just as men raise the embankments higher when they see the torrent swell. By you was the spread of Heresy checked. By you was the Mussulman invasion repelled and the haughty Crescent humbled. God honoured you by choosing you as the avenger of His glory and the deliverer of the Christian people: receive our thanks and the homage of our humble praise! By you were repaired the injuries done to the Church during a period of unusual trial. The true reform — the reform that is wrought by authority — was vigorously applied by your strong and holy hand. To you is due the restoration of the Divine Service by the publication of the Books of holy Liturgy. And all these glorious deeds were done in the six short years of your laborious pontificate!

Hear, now, the prayers addressed to you by the Church Militant whose destinies were once in your hands. When dying, you beseeched our Risen Jesus to grant her protection against the dangers which were then threatening her: oh! see the state to which licentious error has now reduced almost the whole Christian world! The Church has nothing left to her with which to make head against her countless enemies, save the promises of her Divine Founder. All visible support is withdrawn from her. She has been deprived of everything except the merit of suffering and the power of prayer. Unite, holy Pontiff, your prayers to hers, and show how unchanged is your love of the Flock of Christ. Protect, in Rome, the Chair of your Successor, attacked as it now is by open violence and astute hypocrisy. Princes and Peoples seem to have conspired against God and His Christ. Disconcert the schemes of sacrilegious ambition and the plots of impiety which would fain give the lie to the word of God. Avert, by your intercession, the scourges which are threatening Europe, that has become ungrateful to the Church and indifferent to the attempts made against her to whom they owe all they have. Pray that the blind may see, and the wicked be confounded. Pray that the True Faith may enlighten those numberless souls that call error truth, and darkness light. In the midst of this dark and menacing night, your eyes, holy Pontiff, discern them that are the faithful sheep of Christ: bless them, aid them, increase their number. Graft them to the venerable Tree which dies not, that so they may not be drifted by the storm. Get them docility to the Faith and traditions of holy Church. It is their only stay amid the tide of error which is now threatening to deluge the whole world. Preserve to the Church the holy Order in which you were trained for the high mission destined for you. Keep up within her that race of men, powerful in work and word, zealous for the Faith and sanctification of souls of which we read in her Annals, and which has yielded Saints such as yourself. And lastly, O Pius, remember that you were once the Father of the Faithful: continue to be so by your powerful intercession till the number of the elect be filled up!

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Rome, St. Crescentiana, martyr.

In the same city, St. Sylvanus, martyr.

At Alexandria, St. Euthymius, deacon, who died in prison for Christ.

At Thessalonica, the birthday of the holy martyrs Irenseus, Peregrinus and Irenes who were burned alive.

At Auxerre, the martyrdom of St. Jovinian, lector.

At Leocata in Sicily, St. Angelus, a priest of the Order of Carmelites, who was murdered by the heretics for defending the Catholic faith.

At Jerusalem, St. Maximus, bishop and confessor, who the Caesar Maximian Galerius condemned to work in the mines after having plucked out one of his eyes and branded him on the foot with hot iron.

At Edessa in Syria, St. Eulogius, bishop and confessor.

At Arles in France, St. Hilary, bishop, noted for his learning and holiness.

At Vienne, the bishop St. Nicetus, a man venerable for his sanctity.

At Bologna, St. Theodore, a bishop who was eminent for merits.

The same day, St. Sacerdos, bishop of Saguntum.
 

At Milan, St. Geruntius, bishop. In the same city, the conversion of St. Augustine, bishop and doctor of the Church, who the blessed bishop Ambrose instructed in the Catholic faith and baptised on this day.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.