Pope Pius V
Pope Pius V, OP (17 January 1504 – 1 May 1572), born Antonio Ghislieri (and from 1518 called Michele Ghislieri), was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 7 January 1566 to his death, in May 1572.
He was an inquisitor and is venerated as a saint of the Catholic Church. He is chiefly notable for his role in the implementation of the Council of Trent, the Counter-Reformation, and the standardization of the Roman Rite within the Latin Church, known as the Tridentine Mass. Pius V declared Thomas Aquinas a Doctor of the Church.
As a cardinal, Ghislieri gained a reputation for putting orthodoxy before personalities, prosecuting eight French bishops for heresy. He also stood firm against nepotism, rebuking his predecessor Pope Pius IV to his face when he wanted to make a 13-year-old member of his family a cardinal and subsidize a nephew from the papal treasury.
Patron saint of Malta; Valletta, Bosco Marengo, Pietrelcina, Roccaforte Mondovì; Roman Catholic Diocese of Alessandria; Diocese of Alessandria; Urbiztondo, Pangasinan
In the Martyrology
- April 30 Saint Pius V, pope