BIG C CATHOLICS

October 11th, is the optional memorial of Saint John XXIII, (1881-1963) the 20th century Italian pope known for convening the Second Vatican Council. He reigned as pontiff from October 28, 1958 until his death. Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was born in the village of Sotto il Monte, Italy, on November 25, 1881. He was the fourth in a family of 14, the eldest son, of parents, Giovanni and Marianna Giulia Roncalli. The family labored as peasant farmers. Of his beginnings he remarked, "Born poor, but of honored and humble people, I am particularly proud to die poor." Roncalli credited his godfather, Zaverio, for providing his first and most fundamental religious instruction. His pious home life and the local parish instilled in him a fervent love of God and the Church. At 8, Roncalli received his first Communion and Confirmation. He entered the Bergamo seminary in 1892, where he began the practice of making spiritual notes. These, which he continued in one form or another until

We are not on earth as museum-keepers, but to cultivate a flourishing garden of life and to prepare for a glorious future.  ***  Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do. *** If all men are in the likeness of God, why should I not love them all, why should I despise them? Should I not rather revere them? This is the reflection which must hold me back from in any way offending against my brothers, for I must remember that they are all made in the image of God and that perhaps their souls are more beautiful and dearer to God than my own. — Pope St. John XXIII

St. John XXIII and Monsignor Loris Capovilla with the incorrupt body of St. Pius X. In 1913, Pope Pius X suffered a heart attack from which he never fully recovered. On the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, [August 15, 1914] he became ill for the final time. His condition was exacerbated by the outbreak of World War I. Following a second heart attack, he went to his eternal reward on August 20, 1914. Pius X was buried in an unadorned tomb in the crypt beneath St. Peter's Basilica. Papal physicians customarily removed organs from the deceased pontiff's corpse as part of the embalming process. Pius X prohibited this practice in his burial, as have successive popes. Forty years after his death, Pius X's body was exhumed as part of the beatification process and found intact. Below is rare footage of St. Pius X's incorrupt body in which his face is adorned with a bronze mask. St. John XXIII is seen venerating his predecessor's earthly remains along with various princes