This Day in History

August 20, 1914

:

The Death of Pope St. Pius X

   

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The Holy Father has died of a broken heart."

Pius X on his death bed

So said an Italian prelate about the death of Pope Pius X on August 20, 1914. Elected pope following the death of Leo XIII in 1903, Pius X had worked tirelessly to "restore all things in Christ." He wanted to see the Church purified of anything that hindered her in her task of carrying the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the troubled men of the 20th century. He died watching Christendom cast off this Gospel and embrace the ancient curse of war with its bitterness and hate. 

Known for his warm charity toward all, Pius X was sorrowed to behold the nations of Europe entering a war that he knew would be long, bitter, and bloody. He told his nuncios at the various European capitals to do all they could to dissuade the powers from going to war. When Emperor Franz Josef's ambassador in Rome asked him to bless the Austro-Hungarian armies, the pope replied sternly, "I bless peace, not war."

"The horror and pain that overwhelmed him when [war] actually broke was intense," said the pope's secretary of state and close friend, Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val. On August 15, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, it was rumored that the pope was ill. Four days later, while the hot sirocco blew through Rome, the pope uttered his last words, "I resign myself completely." The great bell of St. Peter's Basilica gave out its solemn tones announcing that the pope was dying, and exposition of the Sacrament began in all the city's great basilicas. Early the next morning, St. Pius X passed into peace.

Pius X Canonized

Footage of the canonization of Pius X by his successor, Pope Pius XII, in 1954.