St Pius X + Our Lady of Confidence

Painted 21–22 Feb 2023.

Vincent Cavanagh © 2023

St Pius X was the 259th Pope and successor to St Peter. He was a vehement opponent of what he called "Modernism" inside the theological circles of the Roman Catholic Church.

Something that the church is still fighting with today, what may be bluntly explained as: trying to convert the church to appease the (fickle) world, rather than converting the world to appease (and please) God the Father.

He also ordered the first official codification of the many laws and rulings of the Roman Catholic church into a single document: the 1917 Code of Canon Law, which was promulgated throughout the church by his immediate successor Pope Benedict XV.
1917 Code was superseded in 1983 by the 1983 Code of Canon Law, promulgated by Pope John Paul II.

St Pius X had a great devotion to Our Lady under the title of Our Lady of Confidence, seen in the top right of the painting above. He was Patriarch of Venice from 1893 to 1903 prior to becoming Pope, hence the depiction of St Mark's Basilica in the bottom right.


The feast day of St Pius X is on the 21st of August.

The feast of Our Lady of Confidence is celebrated on the last Saturday before Lent, which this year fell on the 18th of February, 2023 — the day I first stated thinking about painting this image.
Divine intervention was very apparent in the creation of this painting, as was the next one.