Feast Of POPE ST. PIUS X

Some interesting things about Pope Pius X:

He was the first Pope elected in the 20th Century, having ascended to the Papacy I  1903.

He codified the Church's law into a single book.
He moved the age of receiving 1st Communion to childhood.
He established the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) as a means of combating religious illiteracy - and not just for kids, it was for adults too!

When he was canonized in 1954, there had not been a pope canonized for more than 200 years. And the last one canonized was Pope St. Pius V (a Dominican) who was a Renaissance Pope who died 331 years before Pius X became Pope.

Until last spring, the 1st Pope elected the 20th Century was the only one to have been canonized (not surprising given the length of the process involved.

Of the 32 men who served as Pope between Pius V and Pius X - only 3 have even had the beatification process begun for them (and 2 of those were so recent that the process was begun by Benedict XVI. I guess the modern era can hardly be considered a golden age for the papacy.