Pius X (né Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head and 257th Pope of the Catholic Church from August 4 1903 to his death in 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting liturgical reforms, scholastic philosophy and theology. He initiated the preparation of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the first comprehensive and systemic work of its kind. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church, and is the namesake of the traditionalist Catholic Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X.

Quotes

• God could have given us the Redeemer of the human race, and the Founder of the Faiths in another way than through the Virgin, but since Divine Providence has been pleased that we should have the Man-God through Mary, who conceived Him by the Holy Spirit and bore Him in her womb, it only remains for us to receive Christ from the hands of Mary.
  • "Encyclical Letter of Our Holy Father Pius X" in The American Catholic Quarterly Review, Vol. 29. No. 114 (April 1904) p. 211

• I was born poor, I have lived poor, I wish to die poor.
  • His last will, as quoted in an obituary in The Maine Catholic Historical Magazine (1914) Volumes 3-6, p. 17

• I shall spare myself neither care nor labour nor vigils for the salvation of souls. My hope is in Christ, who strengthens the weakest by His divine help; I can do all in Him who strengthened me! His power is infinite, and if I lean on Him it will be mine; His wisdom is infinite, and if I look to Him for counsel I shall not be deceived; His goodness is infinite, and if my trust is stayed on Him I shall not be abandoned. Hope unites me to my God and Him to me. Although I know I am not sufficient for the burden, my strength is in Him. For the salvation of others I must bear weariness, face dangers, suffer offences, confront storms, fight against evil. He is my Hope.
  • As quoted in Life of Pius X (1918) by Francis Alice Forbes, p. 35
  • Variant translation: My hope is in Christ, who strengthens the weakest by His Divine help. I can do all in Him who strengthens me. His Power is infinite, and if I lean on him, it will be mine. His Wisdom is infinite, and if I look to Him counsel, I shall not be deceived. His Goodness is infinite, and if my trust is stayed in Him, I shall not be abandoned.

• But since the Modernists (as they are commonly and rightly called) employ a very clever artifice, namely, to present their doctrines without order and systematic arrangement into one whole, scattered and disjointed one from another, so as to appear to be in doubt and uncertainty, while they are in reality firm and steadfast, it will be of advantage, Venerable Brethren, to bring their teachings together here into one group, and to point out the connexion between them, and thus to pass to an examination of the sources of the errors, and to prescribe remedies for averting the evil.
  • Papal encyclical letter "Pascendi dominici gregis" ("Feeding the Lord's Flock") promulgated by Pope Pius X on 8 September 1907.

• Let the storm rage and the sky darken — not for that shall we be dismayed. If we trust as we should in Mary, we shall recognize in her, the Virgin Most Powerful "who with virginal foot did crush the head of the serpent.
  • As quoted in The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Popes and the Papacy (2001) by Brandon Toropov, p. 26

• Recourse to God, so infinitely good, is all the more necessary because, far from abating, the struggle grows fiercer and expands unceasingly. It is no longer only the Christian faith that they would uproot at all costs from the hearts of the people; it is any belief which lifting man above the horizon of this world would supernaturally bring back his wearied eyes to heaven. Illusion on the subject is no longer possible. War has been declared against everything supernatural, because behind the supernatural stands God, and because it is God that they want to tear out of the mind and heart of man.
  • Papal encyclical letter "Une foise encore" to the French people and clergy on the separation of Church and State, Rome, 6 January 1907.

• Truly we are passing through disastrous times, when we may well make our own the lamentation of the Prophet: "There is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land" (Hosea 4:1). Yet in the midst of this tide of evil, the Virgin Most Merciful rises before our eyes like a rainbow, as the arbiter of peace between God and man.
  • Statement prior to World War I, quoted in Biographical profile at Living Water Community, and partially in A Treasury of Saints : 100 Saints : Their Lives and Times (2002) by Malcolm Day, and St. Mary's Catholic Church, Dubai

• Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven. There are others: innocence, but that is for little children; penance, but we are afraid of it; generous endurance of trials of life, but when they come we weep and ask to be delivered. The surest, easiest, shortest way is the Eucharist.
  • As quoted in Quotable Saints (2003) by Ronda Chervin, p. 79

• We cannot prevent Jews from going to Jerusalem, but we can never sanction it. Jews have not recognized Our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people. They had ample time to acknowledge Christ's divinity without pressure, but they didn't. Should the Jews manage to set foot on the once promised old-new land, the missionaries of the Church would stand prepared to baptize them. Jerusalem cannot be placed in Jewish hands.
  • To Theodor Herzl in a meeting in the Vatican (25 January 1904), quoted in "Catholic Church's long road to accepting Judaism" in The Los Angeles Times (11 May 2009), "Jews Can't Take "Yes" for an Answer" (2000) by Harold M. Schulweis, and "Theodore Herzl and the Pope"

• The lust of lucre has done much to make the minds of men so barbarous. But something also is due to the nature of the climate and the situation of these regions. For, as these places are subjected to burning southern sun, which casts a languor into the veins and as it were, destroys the vigor of virtue, and as they are far removed from the habits of religion and the vigilance of the State, and in a measure even from civil society, it easily comes to pass that those who have not already come there with evil morals soon begin to be corrupted, and then, when all bonds of right and duty are broken, they fall away into all hateful vices. Nor in this do they take any pity on the weakness of sex or age, so that we are ashamed to mention the crimes and outrages they commit in seeking out and selling women and children, wherein it may be truly said that they have surpassed the worst examples of pagan iniquity.
  • A condemnation of the exploitations of the natives of Amazon rainforest by rubber plantations in his encyclical LACRIMABILI STATU.^[1]

• Jesus Christ could have freed Himself from the hands of Pilate and the Jews, but knowing it was His Eternal Father's will that He should suffer and die for our salvation, He voluntarily submitted; nay, He Himself went forth to meet His enemies and freely permitted Himself to be taken and led to death.
  • Catechism of St. Pius X, The Fourth Article of the Creed, question 6

• Outside the true Church are: Infidels, Jews, heretics, apostates, schismatics, and the excommunicated.
  • Catechism of St. Pius X, The Ninth Article of the Creed, The Communion of Saints, question 11

• The Jews are those who profess the Law of Moses; have not received baptism; and do not believe in Jesus Christ.
  • Catechism of St. Pius X, The Ninth Article of the Creed, The Communion of Saints, question 13

Attributed

• Gerusalemme must not get into the hands of the Jews.
  • See The Complete Diaries Of Theodor Herzl, vol. IV, p. 1603