Saint Pius V

Antonio Ghislieri was born in Bosco Marengo on January 17, 1504, to a very poor family: at fourteen he was a shepherd. He joined the Dominicans under the name Michael, studied, taught, and rose through the Holy Office until he became inquisitor general. In 1566 he was elected pope. He was the pope who put the Council of Trent into practice, and he applied it to the letter. Under him came the new Roman Missal — the one that would stay in use for four centuries — the Breviary, which for the first time contained the Hail Mary in full, and the Catechism; the revisions of the Vulgate and of canon law were begun. He was extremely strict, with himself and with everyone. In Rome he went on sleeping on a straw mattress and wearing his Dominican habit under the white one — the custom of popes dressing in white begins with him and with that habit. He cut court spending, struck at nepotism, and enforced the rule that bishops must live in their own dioceses, which was the reform most needed and most ignored. In foreign policy he was just as rigid: he excommunicated Elizabeth I of England, and the move turned out to be a disaster for English Catholics. But he is linked above all to the Holy League and the victory of Lepanto in 1571 against the Ottoman fleet, which he credited to the praying of the Rosary — and that’s where the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary comes from. He died in Rome on May 1, 1572. Clement XI proclaimed him a saint in 1712. If your name is Pius, today is your name day.