Pius

Pius X. (GIUSEPPE SARTO), elected pope in 1903, was born on the 2nd of June 1835, of humble parents, at the little town of Riete in the province of Treviso, Italy. He studied theology at the episcopal seminaries of Treviso and Padua, and was ordained priest in 1858. For seventeen years he acted as parish priest at various small places in Venetia, until in 1875 he was appointed canon of the cathedral and superior of the seminary at Treviso. In 1880 he refused the bishopric of Treviso, but in 1884, on the express command of Leo XIII., he accepted that of Mantua. On the 12th of June 1893 he was created a cardinal, and three days later was nominated patriarch of Venice. In Venice he made himself very popular owing to his piety, his simplicity and geniality, and by his readiness to act in harmony with the Italiangovernment. He succeeded Leo XIII. in his election to the papal chair on the 4th of August 1903. (See PAPACY, ad fin.)