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Continuing our journey, we come next the stained glass window overhead of Saint Pius X.  Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarton was born on June 2, 1835, at Riesi, Province of Treviso, in Venice, Italy.  His family was very poor and he was the second of ten children.  He entered the seminary at Padua and was ordained in 1858 at the age of twenty-three.   He devoted the next seventeen years of his life to the pastoral ministry.  Appointed Canon of Treviso in 1875, he became the Bishop of Mantua in 1884.  In 1892, he was appointed Cardinal and Patriarch of Venice by Pope Leo XIII.  

On August 4, 1903, Cardinal Sarton was elected to succeed Pope Leo XIII, who had died.  As Pope Pius X, two of the most outstanding accomplishments of this saintly Pope were the inauguration of the liturgical renewal and the restoration of frequent communion from childhood.  He also waged an unwavering war against the heresy and evils of Modernism.  In 1905, he defied the government of France and defended the separation of Church from state.  He forbade any civil power from inferring in a papal election.  He gave great impetus to Biblical studies and brought about the codification of Canon Law.  His overriding concern was to renew all things in Christ.  Above all, his holiness shone forth conspicuously.  From Saint Pius X we learn again that “the folly of the Cross”, simplicity of life, and humility of heart are still the highest wisdom and the indispensable conditions of a perfect Christian life, for they are the very source of all apostolic fruitfulness.  He fought against errors that threatened the faith, urged Christians to take a greater part in social affairs.  He sought justice and the rightful place of religion in his dealings with world governments and institutions.   With deep concern, he labored for peace in a world being plunged into war.  The War to end all Wars, now known as World War I, began on August 4, 1914, and Pius X died on August 20, 1914.

His last will and testament bears the striking sentence “I was born poor, I have lived in poverty, and I wish to die poor.” He was canonized on May 29, 1954.  His Feast day is August 21^st.  As we look at this Saintly Pope, I invite you to say the following prayer: “God, to preserve the Catholic Faith, and renew all things in Christ, You filled Pope Saint Pius with heavenly wisdom and apostolic fortitude.  Grant that we may follow his direction and example and be rewarded with eternal life with You.  Amen.”

Our next stops brings us to another of the most beautiful stained glass windows in our Church.  This is the depiction of the Assumption of Our Blessed Mother Into Heaven.  The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 15 August, has a double object: (1) the happy departure of Mary from this life; (2) the assumption of her body into heaven. It is the principal feast of the Blessed Virgin.

THE FACT OF THE ASSUMPTION

Regarding the day, year, and manner of Our Lady's death, nothing certain is known.  The earliest known literary reference to the Assumption is found in the Greek work De Obitu S. Dominae. Catholic faith, however, has always derived our knowledge of the mystery from Apostolic Tradition. Epiphanius acknowledged that he knew nothing definite about it.  The dates assigned for it vary between three and fifteen years after Christ's Ascension.  Two cities claim to be the place of her departure: Jerusalem and Ephesus. Common consent favors Jerusalem, where her tomb is shown; but some argue in favor of Ephesus.  The first six centuries did not know of the tomb of Mary at Jerusalem.

Regarding the origin of the feast we are also uncertain.  It is more probably the anniversary of the dedication of some church than the actual anniversary of Our Lady's death.  That it originated at the time of the Council of Ephesus, or that St. Damasus introduced it in Rome is only a guess. 

According to the life of St. Theodosius it was celebrated in Palestine before the year 500, probably in August.  In Egypt and Arabia, however, it was kept in January, and since the monks of Gaul adopted many usages from the Egyptian monks, we find this feast in Gaul in the sixth century, in January.  The Gallican Liturgy has it on the 18th of January, under the title: Depositio, Assumptio, or Festivitas S. Mariae.  This custom was kept up in the Gallican Church to the time of the introduction of the Roman rite.  In the Greek Church, it seems, some kept this feast in January, with the monks of Egypt; others in August, with those of Palestine; wherefore the Emperor Maurice, if the account of the "Liber Pontificalis"is correct, set the feast for the Greek Empire on 15 August. 

In Rome, the oldest and only feast of Our Lady was 1 January, the octave of Christ's birth. It was celebrated first at Santa Maria Maggiore, later at Santa Maria ad Martyres.  The other feasts are of Byzantine origin. Duchesne thinks that before the seventh century no other feast was kept at Rome, and that consequently the feast of the Assumption, found in the sacramentaries of Gelasius and Gregory, is a spurious addition made in the eighth or seventh century.  Probst, however, brings forth good arguments to prove that the Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, found on the 15th of August in the Gelasianum, is genuine, since it does not mention the corporeal assumption of Mary; that, consequently, the feast was celebrated in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore at Rome at least in the sixth century.  He proves, furthermore, that the Mass of the Gregorian Sacramentary, such as we have it, is of Gallican origin (since the belief in the bodily assumption of Mary, under the influence of the apocryphal writings, is older in Gaul than in Rome), and that it supplanted the old Gelasian Mass.  At the time of Sergius I this feast was one of the principal festivities in Rome; the procession started from the church of St. Hadrian. It was always a double of the first class and a Holy Day of obligation. 

The octave was added in 847 by Leo IV; in Germany this octave was not observed in several dioceses up to the time of the Reformation.  The Church of Milan has not accepted it up to this day. The octave is privileged in the dioceses of the provinces of Sienna, Fermo, Michoacan. 

The Greek Church continues this feast to 23 August, inclusive, and in some monasteries of Mount Athos it is protracted to 29 August, or was, at least, formerly.  In the dioceses of Bavaria a thirtieth day of the Assumption was celebrated during the Middle Ages, 13 Sept., with the Office of the Assumption; today, only the Diocese of Augsburg has retained this old custom. 

Some of the Bavarian dioceses and those of Brandenburg, Mainz, Frankfort, on 23 Sept. kept the feast of the "Second Assumption", or the "Fortieth Day of the Assumption" believing, according to the revelations of St. Elizabeth of Schöönau and of St. Bertrand, O.C., that the Blessed Virgin Mary was taken up to heaven on the fortieth day after her death.  The Brigittines kept the feast of the "Glorification of Mary" on 30 Aug., since St. Brigitta of Sweden says that Mary was taken into heaven fifteen days after her departure.  In Central America a special feast of the Coronation of Mary in heaven is celebrated 18 Aug.  The city of Gerace in Calabria keeps three successive days with the rite of a double first class, commemorating: 15th of August, the death of Mary; 16th of August, her Coronation. 

At Piazza, in Sicily, there is a commemoration of the Assumption of Mary the 20th of February, the anniversary of the earthquake of 1743.  A similar feast is kept at Martano, Diocese of Otranto, in Apulia, 19th of November. 

Note: By promulgating the Bull Munificentissimus Deus, November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII, declared infallibly that the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was a dogma of the Catholic Faith. Likewise, the Second Vatican Council taught in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium that "the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when her earthly life was over, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things.

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