Pope St. Pius X: Feast Day, Patronage & Prayers
Feast day: August 21 (Memorial of St. Pius X, Pope)
Patron of: First communicants (by popular devotion).
About Pope St. Pius X
Giuseppe Sarto was born in 1835 in Riese, a village near Venice, the son of a village postman and a seamstress. He was ordained a priest in 1858 and served as a curate, a parish priest, a seminary director, bishop of Mantua, and patriarch of Venice, never losing his simple pastoral warmth. In 1903 he was elected pope and took the name Pius X, with the motto "to restore all things in Christ."
As pope he encouraged frequent, even daily, Holy Communion and, in 1910, lowered the age of First Communion to the age of reason, around seven, so that children could receive the Lord much earlier. He reformed the liturgy and sacred music, promoted the teaching of the catechism, began the codification of canon law, and defended the faith against the errors of Modernism. He lived simply and was deeply grieved by the outbreak of the First World War, dying just weeks later in August 1914. He was canonized in 1954, the first pope canonized since St. Pius V. Many first communicants thank him for the grace of receiving Jesus young.
Prayers to Pope St. Pius X on Daily Catholic Prayers
Learn more: Pius X (Vatican.va)
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