In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Our Lady, Mother of the Church.
Saint Joseph, Pope Saint Pius V, our patron saints and guardian angels.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pope Saint Pius V, who we celebrate today in the Church's liturgy,
is known for his, what the thing he's known most for,
is his calling all the Church to pray at the time,
at the time of the great attack, or the threat of the Moslem fleet,
that was going to attack all of Christendom.
And he asked the whole Catholic world, the whole Christian world, to pray the Rosary.
And even in preparation for this battle, and we know that Our Lady won the great victory
for the Christian fleet at the Battle of Ponto in 1571.
And Pius V,
instituted the Feast of the Most Holy Rosary as a fitting tribute to Our Lady and her intercession.
But the other thing that he's probably lesser known for is that he implemented all the reforms of the Council of Trent.
The Council of Trent, as you know, was called by the Church in the 1500s to counteract the Protestant revolt.
All the doctrinal heresies that had arisen because of the Protestant revolution,
the Church had to address them.
And many of the other abuses that maybe gave the Protestant revolters more excuses, you might say,
for attacking the Church, that also had to be addressed.
The corruption, or maybe the things that needed to be addressed
with members of the Church,
who weren't living up to their Catholic faith.
So, Pius V was given that task.
And the Council of Trent ended in 1563, and he didn't become Pope until 1566.
And it was like a 20-year Council, so it wasn't like things got put into place overnight.
But Pius V was born in 1563, and he was given that task.
But Pius V was born in 1563, and he was given that task.
But Pius V was born in 1563, and he was given that task.
But Pius V was born in 1564.
And he was baptized with the name Anthony.
And he, at an early age, wanted to be a priest, but his parents were so poor and it didn't seem like that ever became a possibility.
Until he met, one day, two Dominican friars, who were impressed by him as a young man and they offered to educate him free.
Until he met, one day, two Dominican friars, who were impressed by him as a young man and they offered to educate him free.
he joined the Dominican Order at the age of 14 as a young student, and eventually he became a
professed friar. He took the name Michael, so he went from being Anthony to Michael, and as a friar
he was ordained a priest, and then a bishop, and later a cardinal. And all the time he was greatly
devoted to the church, and defending the church, and as a good Dominican he was always preaching
sound doctrine as a Dominican friar. Then at the age of 61, his fellow cardinals surprised him
and chose him to be the pope, and he took the name Pius V. And although he only served six years,
he had much to accomplish, and much was given to him to
take upon himself. He took the responsibility of helping to restore, to reform the true reform
of the church by implementing, as I said, the acts of the Council of Trent,
especially, you know, the reinforcing and the preaching of the true faith, the helping to
establish property.
And he had to deal also with threats from outside the church. As I said, the Muslim horde that was
trying to attack and convert the Christian empire into a Muslim one. And he tried to deal with all
these things, and it took him,
it probably cost him, you might say, all the energy he had. That's why he only served for
maybe six years. But also while he was, he's also known for implementing the
confraternity of Christian doctrine, the CCD, where he wanted those who were in the
confraternity to be devoted to teaching the sound doctrine of the faith. And of course,
the thing that he was doing was, he was teaching the sound doctrine of the faith.
And one of the things that he's most known for is his reform of the liturgy, introducing,
you know, or codifying and maybe systematizing and putting things, you might say, reforming
the liturgy that had become maybe accrued many different things. And he kind of wanted to get
it back to where it had more uniform celebration. You know, at one time, people think, you know,
there was such bad liturgies being experimented with today, and that, you know, there was such, such bad liturgies, you know, after Vatican II. Well, you know, at the time of St. Francis, there's a, there's a story that there were two priests talking, and one said to the other, what do you do, what do you say for prayers during the consecration? He says, I just say the Our Father, you know, and then says the words of consecration. So there was pretty poor formation, even then, at the time of St. Francis in the priestly formation.
And the liturgy was not as, you know, some people have this pie in the sky idea that somehow the liturgy was, you know, always celebrated, like, you know, picture book and had the greatest, you know, reverence and stuff. The church has always had to be constantly renewing itself and reforming itself. And seeing that, you know, like any human, any, any organization that has humans involved, people can become lax.
And attention to proper things always has to be renewed. So it's not like, you know, that all of a sudden, things just changed overnight. Pius V saw there was a need to properly educate priests and to form them, and to see that they would celebrate the Mass properly for the good of the faithful, and especially first and foremost, for the glory of God.
Anyway, he also, because of that reforming mentality that he had, and the, his whole agenda that he had to help reform the church, he had some enemies.
And probably one of the most interesting stories in the life of Pius V is that he had this custom every day.
I mean, he had this custom every day.
I mean, he had this custom every day.
And he got up out of bed in the morning. After he got up, he would pray, and he would pray before the crucifix of our Lord.
And then he would kiss the feet of the crucifix on entering or leaving his room as a sign of his devotion.
And one day, as he went to kiss the feet of the crucifix, they moved away.
And so he missed.
And he said, he thought maybe he had done something to offend God.
So he tried to kiss them again.
And they moved again.
And he couldn't get his lips on the feet of the crucifix.
And then they found out that the feet of the crucifix had been poisoned.
Someone was trying to poison him.
But then when he kissed the crucifix, that he would die.
But our Lord spared him and was doing this miracle to keep him from being poisoned.
So it's a good custom to kiss the crucifix.
And our Lord will remember that.
And reward you for it in more ways than one.
But he was, of course, you know, always, first and foremost, a man of prayer and holiness himself.
For the way he saw to reform the church was he himself had to be living the faith and striving for holiness.
And so we have his great example today.
And that his many...
His many works are still with us today that help, you know, his efforts to beautify the liturgy,
to see that the faith is properly taught.
You know, he helped bring about the catechism of the Council of Trent.
And he also even influenced the papacy from his day forward.
Popes always wore white because he, being a Dominican friar,
chose to wear his habit as pope.
And so white became the custom for the pope and his successors.
So today, as we honor Pope St. Pius V,
let us, with gratitude, and also look to his example.
Maybe the pope, our Holy Father today, will be inspired by Pope St. Pius V.
to turn to Our Lady with even greater zeal as the enemies of the church are maybe not so visible in one sense.
They're not all gathered together in a fleet to attack the church,
but there are definitely many enemies of the church today
who are attacking it in many other more subtle and even more devious ways
with their false doctrine and their insinuations and attacks
against the beauty and the dignity of the church and its teaching,
that our Holy Father will turn to Our Lady and her Most Holy Rosary
and inspire the faithful to once again turn to Our Lady
and ask her to defeat those who would want to soil the Bride of Christ
and to harm the church and its faithful.
And that truly Europe, especially,
and that truly Europe, especially,
and that truly Europe, especially,
and that truly Europe, especially,
and that truly Europe, especially,
what the Turks could not accomplish.
Secular humanism and materialism has done a far greater job
in destroying the faith of Christendom.
And we need to pray, especially to Our Lady,
and ask Our Lady to inspire our Holy Father
as the proper course and the means in which to help bring about renewal of the faith
in Europe and in the Western world and throughout the entire world
for the Church's universal and is truly meant for every man and woman and child on the face of the earth.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.