08/20/2026
Saint Pope Pius X and His Devotion to Mary: Feast Day: August 21st
I have always had a great devotion to our Blessed Mother and I have always felt that I grew up under her protection. The shrine near Riese which I love is hers; my church at Mantua [(northern Italy, between Milan and Padua)] is under her protection. And now I am going to Venice where, at every street corner, on every island, there are monuments to her.” Thus spoke Cardinal Sarto, the future Blessed Pope Pius X, after his elevation to the cardinalate when taking possession, at Rome, of his titular church of St. Bernard, the singer of the praises of Mary.
And, indeed, from the regular Sunday afternoon visits of the peasant boy to the shrine of Our Lady outside his native Riese, to the daily visits of the Supreme Head of Christendom to the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in the Vatican gardens, there is manifest in the life of Joseph Sarto a constant expression of genuine and effective love for Mary. He is the Pope of the Eucharist, the Pope of Christian Instruction, the Pope of Anti-modernism; with equal reason may we call him the Pope of Mary.
No picture of his life is complete without mention of the shrine of the Madonna delle Cendrole and the place it occupied in his memory and affection throughout life. His frequent childhood pilgrimages to this chapel, located a short distance from his home, were repeated each time he returned to visit his home, as a priest, bishop and cardinal. As Patriarch of Venice he restored and beautified it; as Pope he wrote a letter to his co-villagers, commending it to their continued care. On the day of his coronation, of a delegation from Riese he asked for prayers in the name of the Madonna delle Cendrole. This little shrine was dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption. Perhaps it was there that was born in him that love for this prerogative of Our Lady that inspired his reply in this episode: “Pius IX was the Pope of the Immaculate Conception; Leo XIII of the Holy Rosary,” was said to him one day; “May Your Holiness . . . ” ”Be the Pope of the Assumption,” completed Pius X.
As a seminarian, we find him, on vacation, offering to Mary the daily homage of the recitation of her Little Office. As a priest, he preached Mary in his numerous sermons, introduced and promoted the pious practice of the month of May. When his nomination to the episcopacy arrived, it was before the altar of the Blessed Mother that he received it and one of the first things he did after his consecration was to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Loreto. Chief among the simple furnishings, of his study, even as Supreme Pontiff, was always either a statue or a picture of Our Lady.
While Bishop of Mantua, he revived popular interest in an ancient shrine of Our Lady of Grace situated a few miles from his episcopal city. Through his efforts the Franciscans returned as its custodians and pilgrimages were renewed in large numbers. We are told that during those years, except for an occasional visit to his aging mother, his special and only recreations were his frequent visits to this shrine and on the occasions of pilgrimages he would spend hours there, himself helping in the administration or the sacraments.
Just before leaving for the conclave that was to elect him to the See of Peter, he asked that special prayers be offered at this altar of Our Lady of Grace so she might protect him on his journey. During the conclave, when he realized that the wishes of the assembled cardinals were inevitably converging on him, he protested his unworthiness and, after he had spoken, he withdrew to the Pauline Chapel and fell upon his knees before the picture of Our Lady of Good Counsel.
Among the official papal documents issued during the eleven-year reign of Pius X, we count ninety-five treating of Marian subjects.
In his first encyclical, “E Supremi Apostolatus Cathedra,” issued August 4, 1903, he set forth the whole program of his pontificate which he epitomized in this motto, “Restore All Things in Christ.” The means he proposed to use to accomplish this was the Blessed Virgin Mary. He returned to this theme more at length in 1904, in his immortal encyclical, “Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum,” commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. “The chief reason,” he wrote, ”why (this) anniversary should arouse a singular fervor in the Christian people is to restore all things in Christ .. . For who does not know that there is no surer or easier way than Mary for uniting all persons with Christ and obtaining through Him the perfect adoption of sons that we may be holy and immaculate in the sight of God? . . . It is necessary to recognize His most holy Mother as the partaker of the divine mysteries and , in some manner, as the guardian of them, and that upon her as upon a foundation, the noblest after Christ, is built the edifice of faith for all ages.”
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Saint Pope Pius X and His Devotion to Mary Fr. Frank A. Setzer, SMM I have always had a great devotion to our Blessed Mother and I have always felt that I grew up under her protection. The shrine near Riese which I love is hers; my church at Mantua [(northern Italy, between Milan and Padua)] is unde...
