Joseph (Giuseppe) Sarto, the son of a cobbler and village
postmaster, was so poor he used to walk the three miles t
school carrying his shoes to save them from wear…he was
ordained at the age of 23. The death of Leo XII brought
him to Rome for the conclave…he was elected, despite his
tearful plea of unworthiness. Once crowned head of the
Church, he set to work with customary calm and firmness
to “restore all things in Christ.” His decrees and
enactments were some of the most decisive in the history
of the Church: he set up new norms for Church music,
revised the catechism, recodified Canon Law, founded the
papal Biblical Institute, established the Confraternity of
Christian Doctrine, and promoted early First Communion
for children. This opened the way for frequent and daily
Communion for all and merited for Pius the title of “Pope
of the Eucharist.” He battled courageously for the Church
against the anticlerical governments of France, Portugal,
and Italy, and by his famous encyclical Pascendi of 1907,
dealt the deathblow to Modernism which threatened the
entire edifice of Catholic doctrine. Pius X remained in
spirt the simple “country priest,” humble and unaffected
and deeply devout, hence he was call Papa santo –“the
Pope Saint.” He worked and prayed to avert World War I,
and its outbreak put a crushing burden on his heart from
which arose the cry during his last illness: “I wish to
suffer, to die for the soldiers on the battlefield.” His last
will contained the words: “I was born poor, I have lived
poor, and I wish to die poor.” On his tomb is the
inscription: “Poor and yet rich, meek and humble of heart,
undaunted champion of the Catholic faith, zealous to
restore all things in Christ.”

A Saint a Day, Pages 223-224