Pius V

Pope Pius V (1504–1572), born Antonio Ghislieri, was a Dominican friar and former inquisitor whose pontificate was dominated by the implementation of the Council of Trent's sweeping reforms. His six-year reign as pope represented the high point of the Counter-Reformation's effort to renew the Catholic Church from within. Born to a poor family in Bosco, in the Duchy of Milan, Ghislieri entered the Dominican Order at fourteen and rose through its ranks as a theologian, professor, and inquisitor. Elected pope in 1566, he brought to the papal throne the austerity of a monk, continuing to wear his Dominican habit, eating simple meals, and walking barefoot in penitential processions through Rome. Pius V's most lasting contribution was the standardization of Catholic worship through the publication of the Roman Catechism (1566), the Roman Breviary (1568), and the Roman Missal (1570). The Tridentine Mass established by his missal became the universal form of the Latin Rite and remained essentially unchanged for four centuries until the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Politically, Pius V is best remembered for organizing the Holy League — an alliance of Catholic maritime states — that defeated the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571. This naval victory, which halted Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean, was attributed by the pope to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, and he established the feast of Our Lady of Victory (later Our Lady of the Rosary) in thanksgiving. He was canonized in 1712.