The reading
How it began
Giuseppe Sarto dies on 20 August 1914, as Europe goes to war. In 1944, for the beatification process, the tomb is opened. Officials find the body intact, the face recognizable, without the usual ruin of thirty years. Photographs exist. For exposition a silver mask was made; that is what pilgrims see, not the skin.
The day itself
He is beatified in 1951, canonized in 1954. The glass coffin in St. Peter’s is among the few papal bodies so shown.
What was kept
Giuseppe Sarto died on 20 August 1914. The tomb in the crypt of St. Peter’s was opened on 19 May 1944 for the beatification process, while Rome was still under occupation. The cardinals and physicians present reported the body intact and the face recognizable after thirty years. Photographs of that opening exist in the acts. For public exposition a silver mask was made, and that mask — not the skin — is what the pilgrim sees in the Chapel of the Presentation, under the altar, in a glass case. Pius XII beatified him in 1951 and canonized him on 29 May 1954. The causes the Church actually weighed were a life (the catechism, frequent Communion of children, the condemnation of Modernism in Pascendi, the reform of the breviary and of canon law) and healings after death. Preservation was noted in the file. It was not defined, and the mask is part of the honesty of the shrine.
Reading
How to read The Body of St. Pius X
A pope’s body in St. Peter’s is already a sermon about death in office. Incorruption, if granted, is not a vote for every policy of his reign. It is a sign over a priest who wanted children at the rail and priests who believed the creed.
The chair of Peter
Popes who belong with this sign
Church status
How this sign has been received
Church-approved
Canonized. The 1944 exhumation is in the acts of the cause. The mask is disclosed in any honest guide. Status: saint; preservation noted, not defined as dogma.
Sources
- Acts of the beatification of Pius X
- St. Peter’s Basilica, Chapel of the Presentation
For the classroom
The Body of St. Pius X (Died 1914; exhumed 1944, St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican). Grade in this encyclopedia: Church-approved. The pope of frequent Communion and of Pascendi. Exhumed in 1944, the body was found in a remarkable state of preservation. He lies under an altar in the Presentation chapel, the face a silver mask.
