My hope is in Christ, who strengthens the weakest by His divine help; I can do all in Him who strengthened me!

Pope St. Pius X (né Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was the 257th Pope — the Bishop of Rome and head of the Roman Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914.

Quotes

I was born poor, I have lived poor, I wish to die poor.

• God could have given us the Redeemer of the human race, and the Founder of the Faiths in another way than through the Virgin, but since Divine Providence has been pleased that we should have the Man-God through Mary, who conceived Him by the Holy Spirit and bore Him in her womb, it only remains for us to receive Christ from the hands of Mary.
  • "Encyclical Letter of Our Holy Father Pius X" in The American Catholic Quarterly Review, Vol. 29. No. 114 (April 1904) p. 211

• I was born poor, I have lived poor, I wish to die poor.
  • His last will, as quoted in an obituary in The Maine Catholic Historical Magazine (1914) Volumes 3-6, p. 17

• I shall spare myself neither care nor labour nor vigils for the salvation of souls. My hope is in Christ, who strengthens the weakest by His divine help; I can do all in Him who strengthened me! His power is infinite, and if I lean on Him it will be mine; His wisdom is infinite, and if I look to Him for counsel I shall not be deceived; His goodness is infinite, and if my trust is stayed on Him I shall not be abandoned. Hope unites me to my God and Him to me. Although I know I am not sufficient for the burden, my strength is in Him. For the salvation of others I must bear weariness, face dangers, suffer offences, confront storms, fight against evil. He is my Hope.
  • As quoted in Life of Pius X (1918) by Francis Alice Forbes, p. 35
  • Variant translation: My hope is in Christ, who strengthens the weakest by His Divine help. I can do all in Him who strengthens me. His Power is infinite, and if I lean on him, it will be mine. His Wisdom is infinite, and if I look to Him counsel, I shall not be deceived. His Goodness is infinite, and if my trust is stayed in Him, I shall not be abandoned.

• But since the Modernists (as they are commonly and rightly called) employ a very clever artifice, namely, to present their doctrines without order and systematic arrangement into one whole, scattered and disjointed one from another, so as to appear to be in doubt and uncertainty, while they are in reality firm and steadfast, it will be of advantage, Venerable Brethren, to bring their teachings together here into one group, and to point out the connexion between them, and thus to pass to an examination of the sources of the errors, and to prescribe remedies for averting the evil.
  • Papal encyclical letter "Pascendi dominici gregis" ("Feeding the Lord's Flock") promulgated by Pope Pius X on 8 September 1907.

• Let the storm rage and the sky darken — not for that shall we be dismayed. If we trust as we should in Mary, we shall recognize in her, the Virgin Most Powerful "who with virginal foot did crush the head of the serpent.
  • As quoted in The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Popes and the Papacy (2001) by Brandon Toropov, p. 26

• Recourse to God, so infinitely good, is all the more necessary because, far from abating, the struggle grows fiercer and expands unceasingly. It is no longer only the Christian faith that they would uproot at all costs from the hearts of the people; it is any belief which lifting man above the horizon of this world would supernaturally bring back his wearied eyes to heaven. Illusion on the subject is no longer possible. War has been declared against everything supernatural, because behind the supernatural stands God, and because it is God that they want to tear out of the mind and heart of man.
  • Papal encyclical letter "Une foise encore" to the French people and clergy on the separation of Church and State, Rome, 6 January 1907.

• Truly we are passing through disastrous times, when we may well make our own the lamentation of the Prophet: "There is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land" (Hosea 4:1). Yet in the midst of this tide of evil, the Virgin Most Merciful rises before our eyes like a rainbow, as the arbiter of peace between God and man.
  • Statement prior to World War I, quoted in Biographical profile at Living Water Community, and partially in A Treasury of Saints : 100 Saints : Their Lives and Times (2002) by Malcolm Day, and St. Mary's Catholic Church, Dubai

• Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven. There are others: innocence, but that is for little children; penance, but we are afraid of it; generous endurance of trials of life, but when they come we weep and ask to be. The surest, easiest, shortest way is the Eucharist.
  • As quoted in Quotable Saints (2003) by Ronda Chervin, p. 79

• We cannot prevent Jews from going to Jerusalem, but we can never sanction it. Jews have not recognized Our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the Jewish people. They had ample time to acknowledge Christ's divinity without pressure, but they didn't. Should the Jews manage to set foot on the once promised old-new land, the missionaries of the Church would stand prepared to baptize them. Jerusalem cannot be placed in Jewish hands.
  • To Theodor Herzl in a meeting in the Vatican (25 January 1904), quoted in "Catholic Church's long road to accepting Judaism" in The Los Angeles Times (11 May 2009), "Jews Can't Take "Yes" for an Answer" (2000) by Harold M. Schulweis, and "Theodore Herzl and the Pope"

External links

• Full text of official documents including encyclicals at the Holy See
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Pope Pius X