Novena to St. Pius X

Nine days shaped around his actual life rather than nine interchangeable virtues — the village boy, the parish priest, the man who told the Church to stop making children wait.

What it's for

Any intention. It suits people asking for courage in an unpopular decision, patience in ordinary unremarked work, or the nerve to come back to the sacraments after a long time away — because those are the things his life was actually about.

Who he was

Giuseppe Sarto, born 2 June 1835 in Riese, second of ten children in a house where the shoes were counted. Seventeen years a parish priest, then Mantua, then Venice, then a conclave he did not want. Pope from 1903. He lowered the age of First Communion to about seven, pushed frequent Communion when it was thought presumptuous, restored plainchant, and moved hard against ideas he judged would hollow out the faith — for which he was disliked in his lifetime and is argued about still. He died 20 August 1914, three weeks into the war he had seen coming. Canonized 29 May 1954, the first pope canonized since 1712.

Structure

Nine consecutive days, about eight minutes each. Each day: a short reflection on one part of his life, an invocation, the collect from his Mass, an Our Father, a Hail Mary, a Glory Be, and a silence to name your intention. The collect is the same every day; the reflection changes.

When it's prayed

His feast is 21 August — in the older calendar, 3 September. Traditionally the nine days run up to the feast, so that day nine falls on it.

The text used here

The collect is public domain, from the Mass of St. Pius X. The nine-day arrangement and the daily reflections are written for praypoint — which is why they carry no ecclesiastical judgment of their own, and why you should read them as one person's account of his life rather than as anything the Church has said.