Pope Pius X Beatification / Bound Photographic and Document Volume

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TO-DAY the eyes of the Irish people will turn towards Rome, where, with all the traditional splendour of the Church ritual, the Beatification of Pope Pius the Tenth will take place. Only thirty-seven years have passed since Pope Pius died, but already his tomb is a shrine, where pilgrims come, not only from Italy, but from many other lands, to pray. The sanctity of his life, his simplicity, his humility, his abounding Christian charity—all these made him an object of veneration during his lifetime and rendered it natural and fitting that his cause should be promoted within a short period after his death. His Humble Home I ever there was a perfect example of what might be called the democratic basis of the Church, it is provided by the career of Pius the Tenth. The boy, Joseph Sarto, who was born on June 2, 1835, in the little village of Riese in the Italian province of Treviso, started life with no obvious advantages. His parents were poor and his home was humble. He would have been content to labour all his life amongst the simple people of the place where he was born. But others recognised that behind his gentleness and humility there lay a great inner strength and intellectual qualities of a high order. So, step by step, he rose in the hierarchy of the Church till eventually he became, with acclamation, Supreme Pontiff. Simple and Ascetic HIS career as Pope was in keeping with all that had gone before. He cherished the magnificent ceremonial of the Church and the age-old traditions of which it was the reflection. The dignity of the Pontifical Throne was always safe in his keeping. But his personal life remained what it had always been—simple and ascetic. Head of a vast spiritual empire and surrounded by the treasures with which kings and princes had adorned the Vatican throughout the centuries, he was able to say in his last testament: "I was born poor; I lived poor; I desire to die poor." Modernism Died DURING his Pontificate there were no great wars or any of the terrible social upheavals which have marked the reigns of his successors. The fabric of Western civilisation was not yet being menaced, as it is menaced to-day. The first great convulsion of modern times—the World War of 1914-1918—had only just begun when he died. Yet he had to fight a strenuous battle and against an insidious foe. The Modernist movement was at its height, finding its way into universities and seminaries, and threatening the very foundations of the Catholic doctrine. Men who had been regarded as intellectual lights of the Church were falling under its influence. It was at that moment of crisis that Pope Pius revealed himself to be what he was—a man who, behind all his gentleness, had the strength of steel. His victory was complete and Modernism died, as other heresies have died. Most Precious Gift THE Beatification of this great and saintly Pontiff to-day will stir the imaginations of the faithful in every land, and not least in this land of ours. The religious and…