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SAINT PIUS V A holy model for his time and ours
On 7 October this year we celebrate the 450th anniversary of the great victory at Lepanto, thanks to the prayers and tireless work of Saint Pius V. Saint Pius V emerged as a powerful figure in the tumultuous setting of his time. Michele Ghislieri was born in 1504, in Bosco Marengo, Piedmont. He entered the Order of Preachers at the age of 14 and became distinguished due to his personal piety and the orthodoxy of his faith, so much so that in 1558 he was appointed Summus ac perpetuus inquisitor, general inquisitor for life of all Christendom. Having been consecrated bishop of Nepi and Sutri, and then created cardinal, he participated in a stormy conclave after the death of Pius IV. He was elected Pope on 7 January 1566 thanks to the decisive support of Charles Cardinal Borromeo who was also to be elevated to the glory of the altars. As Pope, it would be difficult to find an aspect in the life of the Church that Saint Pius V did not attend to. He was a great reformer of morals. He re-established ecclesiastical discipline, fought sodomy, simony, and restored the liturgy of the Church devastated by Protestantism. At its last session, the Council of Trent had mandated Pope Pius IV to proceed with the publication of the Catechism, the Breviary, and the Missal. It was his successor, Pius V, who promulgated the three documents: in 1566 the Catechism; in 1568 the Breviary; and in 1570 the Roman Missal. The Catechism, Missal and Breviary are different but complementary expressions of the same faith of the Church. The name of Pius V, whom Georges Cardinal Grente (1872-1959) called “the Pope of the great battles”, is associated above all else with the triumph of Lepanto. The great Pontiff employed all his forces to create a “Holy League” against the Ottomans. He supported the military commitment financially and also with the constitution of a papal fleet, but above all, he secured the victory with the efficacy of his prayers. The Pontiff attributed the triumph of the Christian armada to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin; in her honour, he instituted the feast of the Holy Rosary and added the invocation “Auxilium Christianorum” to the Litany of Loreto. Pius V died in Rome on 1 May 1572. He was canonised by Clement XI on 22 May 1712 and his feast is on 5 May. His body can still be venerated in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Commemorating Pius V during the celebrations for the second centenary of his canonisation, Cardinal Serafini (1852-1918), archbishop of Spoleto and assessor of the Holy Office, said: “If I consider him as a religious in his cell, centred on piety and study, Pius V appears to me as the perfect disciple of the great patriarch Dominic. If I consider him as inquisitor, he seems to me to emulate the many members of the illustrious Order of Preachers who gave their sweat, blood and lives in the defence of the faith. If I consider him as a shepherd of souls, he is the model of pastors. Finally, if I gaze on him raised up on the Chair of Peter, his brief pontificate is so packed full of grandiose works that few can equal it, especially in the 16th century; none surpass it.” Saint Pius V therefore represents not an historic figure but exactly the sort of Pope whom the Church today ought to be praying for: he is a holy model of his time and ours. 25
