Pope Pius the Tenth

								


Produced by David McClamrock

POPE PIUS THE TENTH
BY
F. A. [FRANCES ALICE] FORBES
LONDON
BURNS OATES & WASHBOURNE LTD.
PUBLISHERS TO THE HOLY SEE
1954
[Transcriber's note: First published 1918; second edition 1919; third
edition 1924; fourth edition entitled Pope Saint Pius the Tenth,
unchanged in content except for anonymous postscript referring to
canonization of Pope Pius X (omitted here), 1954]

NIHIL OBSTAT: PATRICIVS MORRIS, S.T.D., L.S.S.
CENSOR DEPUTATUS
IMPRIMATUR: E. MORROGH BERNARD
VICARIVS GENERALIS
WESTMONASTERII: DIE XI MARTII MCMLIV

CONTENTS
Chapter



    I.  CHILD AND STUDENT



   II.  CURATE AND PARISH PRIEST


III.  CANON AND BISHOP



   IV.  PATRIARCH OF VENICE



    V.  THE PAPAL ELECTION



   VI.  THE AIMS OF PIUS X


VII.  PIUS X AND FRANCE


VIII.  THE POPE OF THE EUCHARIST



   IX.  PIUS X AND MODERNISM



    X.  PIUS X AND THE PRIESTHOOD



   XI.  THE POPE OF THE SUFFERING


XII.  THE POPE OF PEACE

I
CHILD AND STUDENT
In the village of Riese in the Venetian plains was born on the 2nd of
June, 1835, a child who was destined to leave his mark on the world's
history.
Giuseppe[*] Melchior Sarto was the eldest of the eight surviving
children of Giovanni Battista Sarto, the municipal messenger and
postman of Riese, and his wife Margherita. They were poor people, and
it was difficult sometimes to make both ends meet. The daily fare was
hard and scanty, and the future pope was clothed, as an Italian
biographer puts it, "as God willed." But both Giovanni Battista and
his wife came of a hard-working, God-fearing stock, who could endure
manfully and suffer patiently, and who taught their children to do
the same.
[*] Joseph, Beppo, Beppino, Bepi and Beppe are all diminutives of the
same name. "Sarto" is the English "Taylor."
Little Bepi was remarkable both for his intelligence and for his
restless activity. The village schoolmaster, who at once singled him
out as a pupil worth cultivating, was, we are told, not infrequently
obliged to use means more persuasive than agreeable to calm his
vivacity. Indeed, the seraphic element in Bepi seems to have been
considerably leavened by that of the human boy. "That little rascal!"
exclaimed an old inhabitant of Riese when he heard of Cardinal
Sarto's elevation to the papacy, "Many a cherry of mine has found its
way down his throat!"
It was not long before Bepi had mastered the rudiments of reading and
writing, which were all that the village school could offer. He
became an efficient server at Mass, and such was his influence over
his companions that at the age of ten he was appointed leader of the
somewhat unruly band of acolytes who served in the village church.
The young master of ceremonies proved himself perfectly equal to the
occasion. There was such a serene good temper and such a merry wit
behind the somewhat drastic methods of Bepi that his authority was