Patron

The Patron of the Diocese is Pope St. Pius X whose original name was Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, (born June 2, 1835, Riese, Venetia, Italy; feast day August 21)

Ordained in 1858, he became a parish priest in the Italian region of Venetia. Pope Leo XIII made him bishop of Mantua (1884) and in 1893 cardinal and patriarch of Venice. He was elected pope on August 4, 1903 and was  pope until his death on August 20, 1914.

Some of his directives, though superseded by later social developments, mark him as one of the forerunners of Catholic Action—i.e., the organization of the laity for special and direct collaboration in the church’s apostolic work. His eucharistic decrees eased the regulations governing daily communion, and his revival of the Gregorian plainsong and his recasting of the breviary and of the missal were important liturgical reforms. His decision to adapt and systematize canon law led to the publication of the new code in 1917, effective in 1918. His reorganization of the Curia modernized the church’s central administration, including a codification of the conclave.

He was beatified on June 3, 1951, and canonized on May 29, 1954, by Pope Pius XII.