21/08/2026
SAINT OF THE DAY: August 21
Memorial of St. Pius, Pope
Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of St. Pius X, Pope (1835-1914). Joseph Sarto was born in humble circumstances at Riese, a small village in Venetia, on June 2, 1835. He was successively curate, parish priest, bishop of Mantua, Patriarch of Venice — offices to which his keen intelligence, hard work, and great piety caused him to be quickly promoted. He was elected Pope on August 4, 1903, and took the name of Pius X. As chief pastor of the Church he displayed untiring self-sacrifice and great energy; he was an intrepid defender of the purity of Christian doctrine. He realized to the full the value of the liturgy as the prayer of the Church and the solid basis that it furnishes for the devotion of Christian people; he worked for the restoration of the worship of the Church, especially plainchant, so that Christian people, as he put it, might find beauty in their public prayer. He spared no effort to propagate the practice, so great an aid to holiness, of early, frequent and daily communion. He died on August 20, 1914, and was canonized on May 29, 1954.
It is the anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady of Knock, Ireland, where Our Lady is said to have appeared on August 21, 1879, with St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist, a Lamb and cross on an altar at the gable wall of the parish church of the village of Knock in County Mayo, and was witnessed by 15 people.
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Let us pray:
O God, who to safeguard the Catholic faith and to restore all things in Christ, filled Pope Saint Pius the Tenth with heavenly wisdom and apostolic fortitude, graciously grant that, following his teaching and example, we may gain an eternal prize. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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