Saint Pius V

His studies, nevertheless, did not prevent him from assiduously attending choir and prayer, nor from fulfilling his other exercises of piety. This great capacity, joined to a solid virtue, caused eyes to be cast upon him to raise him to the offices of his Order; he governed his brothers with such prudence, gentleness, and charity that everyone considered themselves happy to live under his guidance: he had a marvelous command over the most difficult and least tractable spirits. A remarkable thing is recounted that happened to him when he was prior in Lombardy. War and famine afflicting this province and the neighboring ones, three hundred soldiers came to his convent to plunder it: our Saint presented himself to them without fear, welcomed them as guests, and inspired in them such veneration that these men of war stayed a month in the community, not only without committing any damage, but even without disturbing its order: they observed the rule themselves, being present at the office, eating in the refectory with the other religious, and listening, in profound silence, to the reading that was done there. Appointed inquisitor of Como and Bergamo, the holy religious showed in this office the zeal he had for the faith. He often ran great dangers there, which could not shake his constancy. His conduct was even decried to the princes: he was obliged to go to Rome to justify himself. He acquired in this city the esteem of the greatest personages, among others of Gian Pietro Carafa, the Theatine cardinal, who was later Paul IV, and o f Rodol Paul IV Future pope who collaborated with Jerome in Venice. fo Pio, cardinal of Carpi; and, upon their recommendation, he was established by Julius III as c ommissary general of the Inquisition commissaire général de l'inquisition Ecclesiastical institution that investigated the holiness of Joseph. in Rome; and, after the death of this Pope and that of Marcellus II, who was only twenty-one days on the Apostolic See, the same Theatine cardinal having reached the pontificate, he made him first, sovereign, and perpetual inquisitor, with an authority so extensive that he had the power to judge by himself all kinds of cases, and to absolve or condemn in the last resort the accused, which the sovereign Pontiffs had not yet granted, and which they have not even, since then, granted to anyone, having always reserved for themselves the judgment in the last resort. This Pope had previously made him, against his will, bishop of Nepi and Sutri, and, two years later, had created him cardinal-priest of the title of the Minerva; but he called himself Cardinal Alessandrino, a surname he had already borne for a long time, because of the city of Alessandria, which was not far from the place of his birth.

These honors, which would have been capable of causing some change in others, made no impression on his heart, and he was so little affected by them that when Paul IV spoke to him of the purple, he said these words to him: "What! Holy Father, do you wish to pull me out of purgatory to cast me into hell?" His modesty, making him view this eminent dignity as far above his strength and merits, made him fear that he would not sufficiently fulfill all its obligations. He did not abandon the Dominican habit, observed his usual fasts and austerities, and would not allow his relatives to attach the slightest temporal hope to his influence. His household was composed only of persons he could not decorously do without, and whose lives were irreproachable. When he received someone into the number of his servants, he warned them that it was not so much into a palace that they were entering, but into a monastery where one had to live as a religious. He took care that they approached the Sacraments often, and sometimes chose certain days to give communion himself to all those in his household. He was full of kindness toward them, respecting their sleep and their meals, never overwhelming them with fatigue, and caring for them in their illnesses.

Pius IV, who had succeeded Paul IV, was no sooner elected Sovereign Pontiff than he transferred the Cardinal Alexandrin from the bishoprics of Nepi and Sutri to that of Mondovi, in Piedmont; for this church was so desolate, whether by the negligence of the preceding bishops or by the proximity of heretics, that it required a pastor who had as much zeal as our Saint to restore the faith there to its ancient purity. As soon as he returned to Rome, after the visitation of his diocese, the Pope, who had ordered him to return, placed him in a congregation he had established to resolve difficulties concerning the Council of Trent, which was then being held. The Cardinal Alexandrin showed himself in all his functions to be the defender of ecclesiastical laws and discipline. Thus, he vigorously opposed the promotion to the cardinalate of Ferdinand de' Medici and Frederick Gonzaga, because of their extreme youth, and because it was a time when they were working actively to reform ecclesiastical discipline; when it was a question of the honor and interest of the Church, he made the boldest remonstrances to the Pope. When it was represented to him that this excessive freedom might bring him some disgrace, he replied that as soon as they would no longer suffer him to speak the truth, he would return with a glad heart to his cloister.

After the death of Pius IV, which occurred on December 9, 1565, Saint Charles Borromeo, resolved to avoid for himself a succession that entailed such a grave responsibility, gathered all the votes in favor of the Cardinal of Alessandria. This choice was universally approved. But the elect was distressed: he had recourse to prayers and tears so that a burden beyond his strength would not be imposed upon him. Finally, the fear of resisting the will of God made him give his consent on January 7, 1566.

He took the na me of Pie V Successor to Pius IV, he supported Charles Borromeo in his reforms. Pius V, to show the people, who apprehended his severity, that he wished to govern with gentleness. This is why he said thereafter "that he would conduct himself in such a manner that there would be more regret for his death than there had been fear of his election." Indeed, he began his pontificate with actions of singular kindness; no sooner was he seated on the Apostolic See than he had the list of all the poor of the city brought to him, in order to give each of them an alms per week; and, instead of throwing gold and silver to the people, or using it for feasts and other superfluous expenses, as was ordinarily done at the election of Popes, he had all these sums distributed to hospitals and the shamefaced poor. He also established persons to take care of orphans and young girls until they were of marriageable age; then, he provided them liberally with a dowry. Finally, on the very day of his coronation, he had five hundred ducats given to a laborer whom he recognized in the midst of the crowd, and who had once received him charitably into his home when he had lost his way while fleeing by night from Bergamo because of the persecution of the heretics. These liberalities dissipated the vain fears that had been conceived regarding his government, and made the Romans hope to be happy under the pontificate of such a holy man; but these were still only preludes to the profusions he was to make subsequently for the rest of the Church. France will never forget the aid in men and money that he sent to Charles IX against the Calvinists, who had taken up arms against him; and we are not a little indebted to him, as that king ordered his ambassador in Rome to declare in full consistory, for the celebrated victories of Jarnac and Moncontour, where the Italian troops, which he had sent under the leadership of the Count of Santa Fiora, helped the Duke of Anjou, who was later Henry III, infinitely to defeat these rebels; thus the king, in recognition of this assistance, sent him, after these victories, several enemy standards, the first of which were placed in the church of Saint Peter and the others in that of Saint John Lateran.

The island of Malta might perhaps be in the hands of the Turks, had this holy Pope, when all was desperate, not succored those generous knights, sending them three thousand men with fifteen thousand gold crowns, and had he not continued to give them five thousand per month during the seven that the siege still lasted.

The memorable battle of Lepanto, where faith triumphed ove bataille de Lépante 1571 naval victory attributed to the intercession of the saint. r infidelity and Christian arms over Ottoman arms, will be remembered eternally; the great Pius V will always be regarded as its principal author. He solicited the Christian princes to form a holy league against Selim II , who, p Sélim II Ottoman Sultan, adversary of the Holy League. uffed up by the successes he had had in several enterprises and imagining that nothing could stop the course of his conquests, had resolved upon the ruin of Italy. The Pope particularly engaged in the union the King of Spain, the Republic of Venice, and the other princes whose states were closest to the Turks; and it was by his pressing instances that the treaty was concluded in Rome and signed at the Consistory on May 20, 1571. He provided, for his part, twelve galleys equipped and armed, with three thousand infantry and two hundred and seventy horses, under the leadership of Marc-Antoi ne Colonna. Finally, Marc-Antoine Colonna Commander of the papal galleys at Lepanto. the Holy Father spared nothing for the execution of such a great design, and heaven, whose help he had implored through extraordinary fasts, prayers, and alms, favored him so much that the prodigious army of the infidels was entirely defeated, and in the space of four hours (October 7, 1571), there were thirty thousand Turks killed and ten thousand taken prisoner; thirty-four of the principal captains and one hundred and twenty galley commanders perished there; fifteen thousand Christians were set at liberty; the confederates took one hundred and ninety ships, burned or sank eighty, and lost only about seven thousand five hundred men.

It was a strange spectacle to see the sea stained with blood, covered with arms, legs, heads, corpses, and the dying, and filled with torn sails, broken masts, shattered oars, and an innumerable quantity of weapons of all kinds floating on the waters. This is nevertheless what makes us know the greatness of this victory, and what obligations the faithful have to Saint Pius V, who procured it for the Church through his efforts and obtained it through the fervor of his prayers. Having had a revelation of the time when the battle was to be fought, he spent, like another Moses, the day and the preceding night in prayer; and it was noted that at the moment when the armies came to blows, the wind, which had until then been contrary to the Christians, changed suddenly and, pushing the smoke of the cannons against the Turks, rendered them almost unable to fight. The enemy prisoners also confessed that, during the battle, they had seen in the air Jesus Christ and the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, followed by a multitude of angels with swords in their hands, who threatened to kill them; which had given them such terror that they no longer knew what they were doing. This miraculous circumstance was not omitted in the description that was made of this signal victory, on a painting that can still be seen at the Vatican. Pius V also had a revelation of the winning of the battle at the same hour that the Christians triumphed over the infidels.

Pius V returned to the charge: "We warn you," he said, "that this peace will be the source of the greatest calamities. If there are those near you who think otherwise, they are mistaken out of ambition, or else, forgetting what the honor of religion and of Your Majesty requires, they respect neither God nor the king. They should consider that by the conclusion of this peace, Your Majesty draws your most bitter enemies from the post where they openly exercise brigandage, to receive them into your own house and fall into their traps." Then, rising to the contemplation of divine justice, he adds: "To tell you how horrible it is to fall into the hands of the living God who, because of the sins of peoples and kings, is accustomed to afflict kingdoms and to transport them from their ancient masters to others, to tell you this is to repeat an obvious thing, and of which Greece alone would bear witness in our day." This letter is dated April 25, 1570. On August 8 of the same year, peace was concluded. One senses tears in the words addressed then by Pius V to the Cardinal of Bourbon: "Your prudence will make you understand the bitterness we felt at the news of this pacification. Would to God that the king could have recognized that the underhanded schemes of his enemies will now expose him to greater dangers than formerly during the war... Our heart, however, does not fail us, remembering that we hold on earth the place of Him who keeps the truth eternally, through the centuries, and who does not confound those who hope in Him."

These painful apprehensions were promptly justified. The Reformers, growing in audacity every day, made Catherine de' Medici regret the concessions she had made to them; it was then that her as tute genius offered Catherine de Médicis Queen of France, mentioned for her religious policy. her a remedy as odious as the evil. Pius V, in pushing for war, wanted it frank and declared; Catherine responded to her enemies with the ambushes of Saint Bartholomew's Day. For not having followed the advice of the Sovereign Pontiff, the royalty, not content with having fortified the Reformation through its weakness, made it popular through horrible massacres.

Beyond these illustrious trophies that the holy Pope won through material arms against the enemies of the Church, we shall report, in a few words, the glorious victories he gained through spiritual arms over heresy and vice. Although the Church is always holy, pure, and incorruptible in its doctrine, disorder nevertheless slips all too often into the individual members who compose it. It was extreme in the time of our Saint, and morals were so corrupted, and ecclesiastical discipline so relaxed, that it required as great a courage as his to undertake a general reformation on the model of the decrees of the holy Council of Trent. To this end, he sent legates and nuncios everywhere, namely: to England, Scotland, Ireland, Hungary, Poland, Flanders, Germany, and France, in order to oppose the progress of the heresy that had already seized a part of these kingdoms and threatened the other with a dire ruin; to strengthen the faithful there against new errors, and to assist the poor Catholics whom persecution had reduced to extremity. He took great care to console those afflicted for the sake of religion, whether by envoys or by his own letters. He wrote several to Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, who was cruelly persecuted by Elizabeth, Queen of England. Knowing that she was deprived of the use of the Sacraments, particularly that of the Eucharist, by her merciless jailer, he gave her permission to communicate herself when consecrated hosts were brought to her. He also sent missionaries to the Indies to cultivate the vine of the Lord that had been newly planted there, and to enlighten the idolaters who were still in the darkness of paganism. Meanwhile, he worked continuously in Rome for the reformation of the morals of the clergy and the people, to try to restore to the Church its ancient splendor. He often exhorted the cardinals to be the light of the world, according to the words of Jesus Christ, and to shine more by their virtue and the innocence of their lives than by their purple and the brilliance of their dignity. He protested loudly that he would neither grant nor suffer anything that was contrary to the decrees of the Council of Trent. He ordered all bishops to reside in their dioceses, saying that pastors who wished to feed their sheep should not be far from them. He forbade judges, under grave penalties, from prolonging trials or favoring anyone in their judgments, not even those of the papal household. He wanted justice to be rendered gratuitously to the poor. He issued an edict against courtesans: they were relegated to an obscure quarter and threatened with severe penalties if they appeared elsewhere. He repressed another scourge of Rome: the usury of the Jews. To this end, he favored the monts-de-piété, the institution of which is due to Paul III (1539). He delivered the Papal States from the assassinations and brigandage that were then devastating Italy. However, the leader of the bandits, the most formidable, Mariano d'Ascoli, had escaped all pursuit. A man from the countryside came to offer the Pope to deliver him: "How will you do it?" asked Pius V. "He is accustomed to trusting me," replied the mountaineer, "I will easily lure him into my house." "We shall never authorize such treachery," cried the Pope; "God will bring about some occasion to punish this brigand, without one abusing good faith and friendship in this way." Mariano d'Ascoli, having learned of this noble response from Pius V, immediately withdrew from his States and never appeared there again.

This holy reformer proscribed animal fights as contrary to humanity; games disapproved of by justice, and the excesses of taverns and public assemblies. He also applied himself particularly to restoring what concerned divine worship; he had the Breviary, the Missal, and the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin corrected, to whose litanies, after the Battle of Lepanto, he had these words added: *Auxilium Christianorum, ora pro nobis*; that is to say: "Holy Virgin, who are the help of Christians, pray for us."

One must not forget in this line of thought his reformation of religious music. At the beginning of the 16th century, this music had allowed itself to be invaded by a style so flowery and profane that Pope Marcellus II had been on the point of banning from the Church any melody other than that of plainchant. The execution of such a rigorous decree was averted only by the patient condescension of Saint Charles Borromeo and by the genius of Palestrina. This great artist, formerly a simple choirboy under the name of Pierluigi in an obscure church in Palestrina, his birthplace, had risen to the rank of chapel mas ter of the Basilica of saint Charles Borromée Saint who executed donations in favor of orphans. Saint John Lateran. Saint Cha Palestrina Italian composer, maestro di cappella under Pius V. rles, acting as a member of a commission established by Pius IV to decide the question of religious music, sent for Palestrina, and giving him clearly to understand that the fate of the art was in his hands, commanded him to write a mass following the strict principles laid down by the Council. Three months later, Palestrina presented Cardinal Borromeo with three masses, one of which, commonly called the Pope Marcellus Mass, bears this motto: *Deus in adjutorium meum intende*, traced by the trembling hand of the composer and still legible today on the manuscript. It was a complete success for the cause of sacred music, and Pius V, whose elevation took place almost immediately after, named Palestrina his chapel master, sanctioning by this very election the use of music in all the temples of Catholicism.

Pius V ordered that the feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas be celebrated in the future like those of the four Doctors of the Church. He cut off several abuses that had been introduced in benefice matters, and especially in the resignations by which they were made hereditary in families; as it was pointed out to him that these laws saint Thomas d'Aquin Saint cited as an example of resistance to temptation. would ruin the Roman court, the Saint gave this admirable response: "It is better that the court be ruined than to overturn the religion of the Catholic Church." It was through his care that the learned Catechism of the Council of Trent was completed and published, which contains as clearly as it does solidly all the mysteries of the faith and all the beauties of theology; the Church wanted pastors to have, in a single small book, enough to nourish their minds and to feed the people entrusted to them. He erected the Congregation of the Brothers of Charity, of which the Blessed John of God had laid the first foundations, and gave them the Rule of Saint Augustine. He had the Clerics Regular, known as Somascans, instituted by the pious Jerome Emiliani, a senator of Venice, take three religious vows. He reformed the Order of Cîteaux in Sicily, where it had almost fallen. He reunited the Servites who had divided into two bodies. He suppressed the Order of the Humiliati, once so flourishing in Italy, because of an attempt that a religious of that institute had committed against the person of Saint Charles Borromeo, who had undertaken to reform them. Finally, he made several monastic reforms, as can be seen in Gabutius. He sent to the Minims of France, as visitor, the Rev. Fr. Mathurin Aubert, who had been his confessor since his promotion to the cardinalate, along with the Rev. Fr. Le Tellier, both religious of the same Order.

Thanks to his care, the Minim religious displayed great constancy in the face of heresy: not one was among the apostates, at a time when there were so many.

It remains for us to say a few words about the private life and virtues of our holy Pope. He never failed to say Mass every day, unless illness rendered him unable to do so. He had a singular devotion to the Passion of Our Lord, upon which he often meditated. He diligently performed his orisons every morning, and he was so absorbed in them that when his servants had to speak to him, they were obliged to pull him by his robe to bring him back to himself; and it was accompanied by such fervor that he obtained from God everything he asked for; the Sultan, as he confessed several times, feared the prayers of the holy Pope more than the weapons of all the Christian princes. He celebrated the divine mysteries with such reverence that many Jews and heretics were converted upon seeing him officiate pontifically. He studied Holy Scripture incessantly, and read every day some passage from the life of Saint Dominic or some other saint of his Order, in order to model his conduct upon theirs. Every evening, he had his servants assemble to attend the litanies and other prayers that he wished to be recited in his presence. The great occupations he had did not prevent him from saying the Rosary every day in honor of the Blessed Virgin. He prayed often for the dead, and he confessed that he had received wonderful help from this devotion in the greatest perils. Every year, during the days of festivities and amusements that precede Lent, he visited the seven churches of Rome, followed by the entire pontifical household. He fasted not only during Lent, even though he was over sixty years old and very infirm, but also during Advent; at other times, he ate meat only three times a week, a practice he observed all his life, even during his most severe illnesses; and, on one of these days of abstinence, being sick unto death, when a composition of crushed almonds with meat was presented to him by order of the physician, as soon as he noticed it, he refused to eat it, and, complaining of this deception: "Do you wish," he said, "that, for the two days I have left to live, I should violate a custom I have observed for sixty years?" He kept his chastity inviolable; his confessors testified, in the process of his canonization, that they had not noticed that he had committed any notable fault against this virtue.

He visited the hospitals himself and inquired diligently of the sick whether they were well assisted, both for their bodies and for their souls. One cannot recount the charities he performed during a contagious illness and a cruel plague that afflicted Rome under his pontificate: he carefully provided for the needs of those who were affected. He had a great horror of avarice; although money was lacking for the war against the Turks, far from establishing taxes for it, he threw into the fire papers that had been presented to him, which contained means, even legitimate ones, of raising some funds. Princes, asking him for a marriage dispensation, offered him fifteen thousand gold crowns to obtain it; but the Saint, after having examined the matter, and finding that he could grant it without prejudice to the holy Canons, granted it, and refused the money that was presented to him: his datary pointed out to him that one could, without sin, receive this sum and employ it for pious uses; the Saint cited in response these words from the Council of Trent: *Raro, ex causa, et gratis*, that is to say, rarely, for real motives, and gratuitously. A criminal, condemned to death, having offered him ten thousand ducats to redeem his life, Pius V replied that justice was made for the rich as for the poor, and would not grant him any pardon. Although he was naturally quick-tempered, he nevertheless moderated his mood so much that nothing austere appeared in his words. He willingly gave audience to all sorts of people, but particularly to the poor, whom he listened to with admirable patience, until they had told him everything; and, when he could not grant them what they asked for, he refused them only with extreme pain. He strove to oblige those who had rendered him some bad service, and he never kept the memory of an injury. He forgave a libertine, who had made some lampoon against him, by saying to him: "My friend, I would have you punished severely if you had insulted the sovereign Pontiff; but because you have only offended Michel Ghislieri, go in peace." He also did not want anyone to pursue another person of noble condition, who had conspired against his life.

What shall I say of the humility and modesty of our holy Pope? Although the pontifical dignity obliged him to receive honors, they were nevertheless only torments for him: he looked upon this external splendor as very sharp thorns, which warned him of the peril to which he was exposed. Indeed, he confessed that he had not had a moment of rest since he was on the Apostolic See; that his condition was worthy of compassion, and that he repented much for having accepted an office that was beyond his strength. Thus he deliberated several times whether he should not abdicate to enjoy the religious tranquility he had tasted with such pleasure in his cloister. He could not suffer precious furnishings or rare tapestries in his palace; one saw there no profane paintings, but crucifixes and other pious pictures. He forbade that a new habit be made for him when he was elected pope, contenting himself with those that his predecessor had left. He always wore a tunic of coarse wool instead of a shirt, and it was impossible to make him wear another one that was finer, or to persuade him to use a habit of cloth from Cuenca, because he found it too fine. He did not want to allow a statue that the Roman people had erected in his memory to be placed in the Capitol: "I would rather," he said, "be engraved in the hearts of good people and live in posterity through examples of virtue, than to be in marble or bronze in a public square."

He maintained the same conduct for his nephews, his nieces, and his relatives: he gave them what was necessary to educate them, to marry them, and to have them live honestly: but he refused to open to them the path of honors and opulence. He believed, with reason, that ecclesiastical revenues should have only a holy destination. He could not bear that, in government, whether spiritual or temporal, one should have in view anything other than the glory of God and the honor of the Church; according to him, what is called reason of state is an invention of the devil, of ambition, and of other passions.

This holy Pope had long suffered the pains of the stone, without allowing the operation to be performed on him, which alone could have cured him. In the month of January 1572, the doctors declared that his life was in danger. In the midst of the most acute suffering, he did not let the slightest complaint escape him; he was content to sigh before the crucifix, which he looked at and kissed tenderly; he would then say to Our Lord: "Lord, increase the pain, but also increase the patience." As long as his strength allowed him to stand, he celebrated the holy sacrifice of the Mass himself; when he was no longer able to do so, he attended it every morning in his room and received communion there. On April 4, Good Friday, he had a large cross brought into his oratory, got up, and went barefoot to adore it, watering the five wounds of the Savior with his tears. The news of his death having spread in Rome, he could hear the groans of his people, who were weeping for him. Touched by these marks of love, he wished to bless the Romans once more. On Easter day, he had himself carried, dressed in his pontifical vestments, to the loggia above the great door of Saint Peter's: life reappeared for an instant on his face; his voice was strengthened, so that his blessing was heard distinctly even in the furthest ranks of that immense multitude kneeling in the square of Saint Peter's. On April 21, he undertook a pious exercise that everyone believed to be beyond his strength, which was to make the stations of the seven churches: he set out, despite his doctor, supported under the arms. His pallor was so livid that one thought he would expire during the journey. In the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, he climbed the Holy Stairs on his knees, kissed the last step three times, and could not bring himself to leave this sacred place. When he had been brought back to the Vatican, they tried to keep all external concerns away from his bed; but they could not hide from him the arrival of English Catholics, who were fleeing the persecutions of Elizabeth. He wished to see them, showered them with tokens of affection, had them recount everything that concerned the Church in England, and particularly recommended to Cardinal Alexandrin to provide for the needs of these guests, who found themselves in complete destitution. When they had been dismissed, he was heard to exclaim while joining his hands: "My God, you know if I have always been ready to shed my blood for the salvation of this nation." The closer he drew to his end, the more tranquil he was: a holy joy shone on his face, while the spectacle of his sufferings and his patience drew involuntary sobs from those around him. Among the prayers that were read at his bedside, a large part of the day and night, he was especially fond of the seven Penitential Psalms; he would have the reader stop at each verse, in order to perform acts of contrition, in accordance with those of the penitent king. Several times the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ was read to him, and each time this sacred name was pronounced, he would uncover his head. When his already stiff and frozen hands refused him their service, he performed this respectful duty with the help of a person placed near him.

On April 30, he received Extreme Unction. He wished to kneel once more, and, in the humblest attitude, he invoked God for the needs of his Church which, the object of his care during his life, occupied his thoughts even in death. He had some members of the Sacred College come to give them his final instructions: "It only remains for me," he told them, "to recommend to you, with all my soul, this same Church that God had committed to my care. Make your efforts to elect me a successor full of zeal for the glory of God; may he be attached to no other interest in this world, and seek only the good of Christendom." The warmth with which he pronounced these words, while waving his failing arms, exhausted what strength he had left. From that moment, with his eyes fixed on the cross, he let nothing escape his lips but texts, barely articulated, of the Holy Scripture. He expired on the first day of May 1572, at five-thirty in the evening, at the age of sixty-eight: his reign had lasted six years, three months, and twenty-three days. The doctors, to account for his courage, performed an autopsy on the part that had been diseased and found three black stones there: they declared that his patience, in such a painful situation, had been superhuman. The death of the holy Pontiff was mourned throughout the Catholic world. In Spain, Saint Teresa had a revelation of it and cried out, all in tears, before her Carmelites: "Do not be sur prised, my sis sainte Thérèse A mystic saint who prophesied the greatness of John the Baptist. ters, and rather weep with me, for the Church is a widow of her most holy Pastor."

Among the miracles that God worked in favor of Pius V, the following is recounted by all contemporary historians: One day when he wished to kiss, according to his custom, a crucifix before which he was praying, the foot of Christ withdrew of its own accord; this was because wicked men had coated this crucifix with poison, as was seen when wiping it with breadcrumbs which, when subsequently presented to dogs, caused them to perish on the spot. The Saint did not even want these assassins to be sought out. The arts have often reproduced the event of the crucifix.

He predicted several events long before they happened. A jurist having mounted the pulpit with the intention of inveighing against his conduct, he lost his speech at that very hour, and died miserably a few days later. He cast out demons from the bodies of several possessed persons, and many sinners were converted at the sight of his holy body exposed after his death. In a fire in the chapel of the Duke of Sessa, the fire, which had melted even the silver vases, did no damage to two images of Pius V, one of which was made of canvas and the other of cardboard. Anne-Marie Martinozzi, wife of the Prince of Conti, was cured of great headaches, and gave birth happily after several miscarriages, by venerating as a precious relic the hat of this holy Pope. Finally, it has been experienced that the Agnus Dei consecrated by his hand had a particular virtue to preserve from water, flames, and weapons: an overflow of the Tiber was stopped in a moment by one of these holy wax images that he had thrown into it, and soldiers became almost invulnerable by carrying these precious relics on them.

As soon as he had passed away, everyone made efforts to obtain some piece of his clothing, and it was necessary, to curb the devotion of the people which had gone too far in this regard, to enclose his body in a chapel where one could only kiss his feet through bars. The General of the Order of Saint Dominic obtained, through many prayers, a woolen tunic that he had worn, and subsequently presented it to Sebastian, King of Portugal.

Many princes eagerly asked for one of his skullcaps or his shoes, or some other object that had served him, so great was the veneration held for him. Even the Turks made arrangements to obtain his portrait, as one of the greatest men in the world.

The pilgrims who travel to Rome do not fail to visit, at the convent of Saint Sabina, the chapel known as Saint Pius V's. This chapel is nothing other than the cell occupied by Saint Pius V, when he was simply called Brother Michele Ghislieri. It is at the head of a long corridor, at the entrance of which one reads in large letters: Silence.

The painting on the high altar represents the miracle of the crucifix. On the left wall, a painting represents Saint Philip Neri predicting the tiara to our holy religious; on the right one, the holy Pontiff gathers a little dust from the Vatican and gives it to Polish ambassadors, who desired relics, saying to them: Here is what you desire, this dust was bathed, fifteen centuries ago, in the blood of the martyrs. Opposite the altar, above the door, Pius V is painted kneeling, looking with anxiety through one of the windows of his palace. An angel at his side announces to him the Battle of Lepanto, and describes to him with enthusiasm the details of this great naval victory which was his work, and to which he attributes the success to the Virgin of the Rosary. Finally, on the altar, a very beautiful ivory crucifix is offered for your veneration. It is the very one of Saint Pius V. Until then it had been kept with religious respect at the Vatican; but Pius IX, our good Pontiff, in one of his visits to Saint Sabina, offered it to the religious of the convent, telling them, with his customary graciousness, that it was to them, better than to any other, that this precious relic should belong.

Saint Pius V is also represented with a rosary, for he had great confidence in this devotion. A fleet is also placed at his side, to recall the victory of Lepanto and the institution of the feast of Our Lady of Victory.

The body of Saint Pius V, which was preserved without corruption, was buried in the church of the religious of his Order, which he had founded in Bosco, the place of his birth, where he had chosen his burial place; but fifteen years later, namely, in the year 1588, Sixtus V had it transported to the Basilica of Saint M ary Major, where he had a superb basilique de Sainte-Marie-Majeure Final burial place of Saint Pius V. mausoleum erected for him on the right side of the altar. The miracles that occurred at his tomb prompted the Sacred Congregation of Rites to order that, on the anniversary of his death, one would no longer say a Mass for the dead, but a Mass of the Most Holy Trinity, in thanksgiving for God having received his soul into the company of the Saints; which Urban VIII confirmed in the year 1613; and on May 1st of the year 1672, Clement X issued the decree of his beatification. But finally, on May 22, 1712, Pope Clement XI declared him a Saint, after having observed all the ordinary formalities for this subject.

We have made much use, to complete Father Giry, of the History of Saint Pius V, by the Count of Valloux, 2 vol. in-12, at Sagnier and Bray; Paris, 3rd edition, 1851.

--SAINT BRITTON, BISHOP OF TRIER (4th century).

Britton succeeded Saint Bonosus on the see of Trier. Called to Rome for the confirmation of the acts of the Council of Nicaea, he occupied, among the bishops of the West, the third place after Pope Damasus and Saint Ambrose, in the capacity of primate and metropolitan bishop of the Gauls: Ithacius, a bishop from Spain, had come to Trier due to disputes with the Priscillianists; pursued by the calumnies of these heretics, he was on the point of being driven from the city by the magistrates: Britton supported and justified him. During his episcopate, Saint Ambrose and Saint Martin came to Trier, where they performed miracles and did not fear to rebuke the Emperor Maximus and the courtier bishops. Britton knew how to defend his church against the Priscillian heresy; and, adorned with virtues worthy of the episcopate, he fell asleep in the Lord on the 3rd of May.

Proper of Trier.