ORDER OF PREACHERS
The Dominican Family
Trinidad
& Tobago
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ORDER OF PREACHERS |
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POPE ST. PIUS V, O.P
1504 - 1572
Birth Antonio Ghislieri was born at Bosco in Lombardy, Italy, on 17 January 1504.. His family, Paul and Domenica Augeria Ghislieri, were impoverished nobles who put their son to shepherd their small flock. Two Dominicans met him by the roadside one day and they were so impressed by his intelligence that they arranged to have him educated. He received an excellent training in piety, holiness and austerity of life, the result of which was that he joined the Order of Preachers when he was only fourteen or fifteen years of age. Dominican He received the Dominican habit, being given the name of Brother Michele, and was sent to Lombardy for his studies. There he met heresy for the first time and became an avid proponent of vera doctrina, the true teaching of the Church. Later he was sent to Bologna, where St. Dominic is buried, and also to Genoa. In 1528 he was ordained to the priesthood in Genoa and for the following sixteen years he taught philosophy and theology both there and in Pavia. He became Master of Novices and Prior of various convents (the name given to large houses of Dominican friars). All were impressed by the austerity of his life, the severe penances he imposed on himself, the long hours spent, like St. Dominic, praying in the church at night, again, modeled on the Holy Founder, he spoke only to God or about God; he travelled on foot from one place to another. In 1543 he attended the Dominican Provincial Chapter and presented a defence of Catholic truth against the errors of the heretics. This made a very deep impression and it was to have repercussions that would affect the remainder of his life. Inquisition The Inquisition is one of those very emotional topics, charged and disseminated by public opinion from many centuries past, which gives rise to a difficulty in discerning the complete and complex truth that involves cultural contexts and political ideas of the time. This is not the moment to enter into this discussion. The purpose of this article is to give an account of the life of a Dominican friar of that time. Because of the clarity and profundity of his presentation to the Dominican Provincial Chapter, news of which had spread throughout northern Italy, Fra Michele was appointed Inquisitor for Como and Bergamo. Many of his co-religious had become martyrs at the hands of the heretics and attempts were made on his life by way of ambush and poisoning. This did not frighten him or disturb his serenity. He went about his task prayerfully, patiently, seeking out heretics to convince them of their errors and succeeding in many cases. He went to Rome in 1550 to have a particular matter resolved and while there he served for a short time in the prisons where he won several heretics back to the faith, one of whom he clothed in the Dominican habit to assure him of his total reconciliation. Cardinal Carafa asked fra Michele to undertake certain arduous matters pertaining to the Inquisition and he was most favourably impressed. A friendship developed between them. In 1555 eighty year old Cardinal Carafa became Pope Paul IV (1555-1559) The following year fra Michele became Bishop of Nepi and Sutri and he was elevated to Cardinal in 1557. Two years later, under the succeeding Pope, he was transferred to the bishopric of Mondovi in Piedmonti, Italy. The succeeding Pope was Pius IV (1559-1565) and he appointed him Inquisitor General for all Italy and Spain. Even though he had the utmost respect and reverence for Pope Pius IV he had no hesitation in disagreeing with him when he thought that the occasion needed his point of view. At one stage the Pope intended to elevate a thirteen year old prince to the College of Cardinals, on another he was listening to the Emperor Maximilian advocating the abolishing of celibacy. Cardinal Ghisheri objected and the Pope acquiesced on both points. Pope When Pope Pius IV died, at the instigation of Cardinal St. Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, the Dominican Cardinal was unanimously elected to succeed on January 7, 1566. He took the name “Pius V”. He was to reign for a short but extremely filled six years. He met the Church at an extremely low ebb, shattered by the Protestant Reformation and the heresies of Luther, Calvin and the Lombards, by corruption and the need of clerical reform, by the lack of knowledge of the faith, by the threat of Turkish invasion of the Mediterranean countries and their domination, by the fear of England breaking away from the Church, by the Low Countries having embraced heresy in their attempt to break off Spanish control, and by a general demoralised state of Catholics because of the many abuses. This did not deter the new Pope. He set about reform according to the principles of the recently concluded Council of Trent (1545-1563). Among some of his outstanding achievements were: · the full implementation of the Decrees of the Council of Trent; · publication of the Roman Catechism, in use until 1995, which had been prepared by theologians of the Order of Preachers; · publication of the revised Roman Missal and Book of Divine Office; · renewed ecclesiastical music; · a commission created to revise the Latin Vulgate edition of the Bible; · decrees on the establishment of Seminaries in dioceses; · proclamation of St. Thomas Aquinas as a Doctor of the Church and insistence that the works of the Angelic Doctor be published; · erection of the Congregation of the Index to give strength to the Church’s resistance to Protestant and other heretical writings; · promotion of the foreign missions, especially in the Far East (China, Japan, Philippine Islands, India, etc.); · with the assistance of his friend St. Charles Borromeo, reformation of the clergy; · reformation of the Roman Curia; He excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1570 and supported Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. He absolved English Catholics from allegiance to the excommunicated Queen and this increased her provocation to have them put to death for treason. He supported the Church in Germany and the Low Countries against heretical princes. He assisted the King of France in the attacks of the Huguenots. He helped the Church in many other countries, especially of Europe. It is no wonder that in striving to reform both Church and state Pius encountered vehement opposition. One story illustrates this. The holy Pope was accustomed to kiss the feet of the crucifix on leaving or entering his room. One day the feet moved away from his lips. Sorrow filled his heart, and he made acts of contrition, fearing that he must have committed some secret offence, yet he still could not kiss the feet. It was afterwards discovered that they had been poisoned by an enemy. He gave great support to the newly founded Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, and he assigned the Gregorian University to them. His achievements during such a short reign were truly magnificent. There is no doubt that he was a divine choice as Pope. Battle of Lepanto A major problem faced by the Pope was the Turkish invasion of Europe. Immediately on becoming Pope he introduced prayers and almsgiving to beg God for victory over the Turks. The crisis came to a head on 7 October 1571 at Lepanto where the Christian forces, under Don Juan of Austria, won the battle and the Turks were decisively defeated. The Christian fleet was small, and numerically it was no match for the Turkish fleet, which had never met defeat. When it sailed out to meet the enemy, every man on board had received the sacraments, and all were praying the Rosary. The Pope had insisted that anyone of sinful life should not be allowed take part in the battle. At the time of the battle, he had the people of Rome pray the Forty Hours Devotion and recite the Rosary. The Pope was assembled with his Cardinals on that Sunday evening when suddenly he jumped up and opened the windows and exclaimed, “An end to business! Our great task at present is to thank God for the victory which he has just given the Christian army". In memory of this triumph he instituted the Feast of Our Lady of Victories on the anniversary of the battle. Pope Gregory XIII, his successor as Pope, changed the title to “Our Lady of the Rosary”, to be observed on the first Sunday in each October. Pius V had added to the Litany of Loreto the supplication "Help of Christians". Simplicity & Holiness of Life The great reason for Pius V’s success as Pope was his personal life and witness. He continued to live as he always had, simple, poor, chaste, austere, given to extended hours of prayer no matter how busy he might be (at least two prolonged sessions before the Bl. Sacrament each day), nights spent in the church or basilica praying (as St. Dominic was accustomed to do) He did not change his manner of dress and continued to wear his plain Dominican habit, as a result of which the Popes from that time to the present wear their white cassock, modelled on the Dominican habit. He never abandoned his custom of visiting the sick in hospitals and he would remain with them as they died. He served the poor by providing food and by giving money customarily used for the papal banquets to them. Once a month he held a special court for anyone who felt they had been treated unjustly. Death and Canonisation In March 1572 it was clear that he was dying. “Lord, increase my pains, but increase my patience also”, he would pay. He insisted on visiting the Seven Basilicas and the Scala Santa. Pope Pius V died on May 1, 1572, apparently of a renal disorder. One hundred years later, to the day, he was beatified by Pope Clement X and in 1712 Pope Clement XI raised him to the altars of the Church by proclaiming him to be a Saint. His feast is celebrated on April 30 each year. Prayer Faithful God,
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