Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto was born in Riese, in the diocese of Treviso, on 2 June 1835, the second of 10 children.

When his father died, he could have taken his job at the Town Hall - he was 17 - but his mother helped him follow his vocation, working day and night to make ends meet. A love and a determination that Giuseppe Sarto must not have forgotten. He loved to study, enjoyed excellent health, was good-natured and tenacious at the same time, and his life was full of charitable works. He was chaplain, parish priest, spiritual director of the Seminary, then bishop of Mantua, Patriarch of Venice and finally elected Pope. His first act was to abolish the "lay veto", a kind of right claimed by some European monarchies, with the Constitution Commissum nobis.

The Catechism that bears his name, adopted in Italy, is very well known, with its particular structure of “questions and answers”. It was designed specifically for simple people in a society in which culture had not yet permeated all social classes. Pius X’s concern was precisely to spread catechesis among Christians as much as possible.

Among the most notable features of his Pontificate, the opposition to modernism and anti-Christian laws in France, the beginning of the reform of Canon Law, the reform of the Roman Curia, the advancement of the age of first communion to around 7 years. And again in Italy, the loosening of the restrictions of the Non expedit of Pius IX, that is, the prohibition for Italian Catholics to participate in political life. He also favored the renewal of the Liturgy, the Biblical movement, gave Gregorian chant pre-eminence. At the heart, participation in the Eucharist. This is just to give a few brush strokes given the wealth of interventions of his Pontificate.

Among the curiosities is the revocation ordered by Pius X of the ecclesiastical sanctions foreseen for those who practiced the Tango dance: after having seen a performance he said, in dialect, that he preferred "the dance of the furlana" but that he did not see what great sins there were in this new dance.

A Papacy, therefore, certainly very “active”, varied, so much so that his great friend, and Secretary of State during his Pontificate, Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, not by chance underlined that this enormous work was mainly due to his personal initiative, also highlighting his “goodness” that “no one would be capable of questioning”. At the heart of his life and his Magisterium, the pastoral concern in a society where the crisis of Faith was increasingly felt.

An intent sealed by the motto chosen for his Pontificate: Instaurare omnia in Christo, taken from the Letter to the Ephesians. He wanted to live as a poor man: “born poor, lived poor and sure of dying very poor”, he left written in his will.