Portrait of a Pope, possibly Pope Saint Pius V (1504 – 1572).
Artist: Palma il Giovane (1550–1628).
Collection: Museo d'Arte di Chianciano Terme.
Source/Photographer: https://www.bonhams.com/
(Wikimedia Commons)
Text from “The Liturgical Year”.
By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 8.
Paschal Time.
Book II.
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 Saint Peter, their predecessor, the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Anicetus, Soter, Caius, Cletus, Marcellinus. All these Pontiffs held in their hands the Palm of Martyrdom: Pope Leo I (“The Great”) was the only one who did not shed his blood in the cause of his Divine Master.
The following two paragraphs are from Wikipedia.
Pope Leo I (Italian: Leone I) (391 A.D. – 461 A.D.), also known as Leo the Great (Latin: Leo Magnus; Italian: Leone Magno; Greek: Léon o Megás), [1] was Bishop of Rome[2] from 29 September 440 A.D. until his death on 10 November 461 A.D.
He is the first of the three Popes listed in the
Annuario Pontificio with the Title “The Great”,[3]
alongside Popes Gregory I and Nicholas I.
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 I, Pius V was zealous in combating heresy; like Leo I, he saved his people from the Barbarian yoke.
The whole life of Pius V was combat. His Pontificate existed 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, develop the whole Christian World
in the darkness of heresy.
Pius V defended the Peninsula [Editor: Italy] with
untiring devotedness from the danger that threatend 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.
When seated on the Chair of Peter, he kept the innovators in check by fear, roused the Sovereigns of Italy to energy and, by measures of moderate severity, drove back beyond the Alps the torrent that would have swept Christianity from Europe had not the Southern States thus opposed it.
Pope Saint Pius V.
Available on YouTube
From that time forward, Protestanism
has never made any further progress: It has been
wearing itself out by Doctrinal Anarchy.
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. This, again, would have meant
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 summons of the Pontiff.
The Cross and the Crescent were soon face to face at Lepanto.
The Prayers of Pius V decided the victory in favour of
the Christians, whose forces were inferior to the Turks.
We shall return to this important event when we
come to the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary of
The Blessed Virgin Mary, on 7 October.
But we cannot omit to mention the prediction uttered by the Holy Pope, on the evening of the great day of 7 October, 1571.
The battle between the Christian and Turkish fleets
lasted from early morning until late 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 from which the Ottoman Empire never recovered: Its fall dates from that glorious day.
The zeal of this Holy Pope for the reformation of
Christian morals, his establishment of the observance
of the laws of discipline prescribed by the Council of Trent,
and his publication of the new Breviary and Missal,
have made his six years’ Pontificate to be one of the
richest periods of The Church’s history.
Protestants 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, ever 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 persecutions.
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 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 16th-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 by treachery,
they put a deadly poison on to the Feet of Christ on 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, whereby
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 make 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 Thee, O Creator of all things !
That, in these days of Paschal joy, Thou defend
Thy people from every assault of death !”
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