St. Pius V

April 30 is the feast of St. Pius V (1504-1572), the Dominican Pope who implemented the reforms of the Council of Trent. Born Antonio Ghislieri at Bosco, near Alessandria, he entered the Dominican order at fourteen, was ordained priest at Genoa, and served as inquisitor of Como and Bergamo before being made bishop of Nepi and Sutri in 1556, cardinal in 1557, and Pope in 1566.

As Pope, Pius V published the Roman Missal of 1570 — the standardized missal of the Latin Church that bears his name — and the Roman Breviary of 1568, the Roman Catechism of 1566, and the Roman Pontifical of 1596. He enforced the residence of bishops, reformed the Roman Curia, and excommunicated Elizabeth I of England in 1570. He crowned the Holy League, with Spain and Venice, that defeated the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto on October 7, 1571 — the victory he attributed to the intercession of Our Lady of the Rosary, and to which the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on October 7 owes its origin.

Pius V died in 1572 and was canonized in 1712. His body lies in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore at Rome. From Bosco, where he was born, to Rome, where he reformed the Church, to Venice, whose fleet he joined against the Turk, the April 30 feast is the feast of the Dominican Pope of the Counter-Reformation.