I'm not a religious person but I find churches fascinating. All
other buildings are liable to be changed, demolished or ruined, but
churches in general can survive basically unchanged for hundreds of
years.
St. Pius X, Templeogue
St Pius X Church opened on the 27 November 1960. At that time it
was part of Terenure Parish. In 1964, it became a separate parish
and its two schools opened in 1965. Today Templeogue Parish is a
vibrant Catholic Community.
St Pius X
Giuseppe Melchore Sarto was born of humble parents on June 2,
1835, in the small village of Riese near Venice. His father, a
village official, and his mother raised Giuseppe in a loving
Christian home. It was this home situation which prompted Giuseppe,
after his college days in Castelfranco,to enter the seminary in
Padua. Giuseppe Sarto was ordained at the age of 23 on September
18, 1858. His first assignment was as curate in the city of
Trombolo. After nine years he was transferred to Salzano as pastor,
a position he held for eight years. Due to his pastoral and
administrative abilities, his bishop named him spiritual director
of the diocesan major seminary and chancellor of the archdiocese, a
position he held from November, 1875, until his elevation to the
episcopacy of Mantua in 1884.
After nine years as bishop he was transferred to Venice as the
city's patriarch and cardinal. Giuseppe Cardinal Sarto won the
hearts of the Venetians through his humble spirit of poverty and
his love for the Church, especially in the areas of education,
Catholic action and liturgy. After the death of Leo XIII the
conclave of 1903 elected Cardinal Sarto pope despite his own
hesitancy to accept the office of Vicar of Christ. The new pope
assumed the name Pius X. As Supreme Pontiff, Pius took as his motto
the passage from Paul, "To restore all things in Christ, that
Christ might be all and in all" (I Cor. 15:28), a goal which was
particularly important during that period of the Church's emergence
into the modern world. He died on August 20, 1914, at the age of
79. He was canonized St. Pius X on May 29, 1954. The universal
Church celebrates his holy life and example on August 21. He was
the first pope in modern times to be canonized.
The Cache
The launch of this series coincides with the Golden Jubilee (50
years) of St. Pius X Church in Templeogue. In-fact the cache was
placed on the same day as the opening of the jubilee celebrations
so is a fitting 'cache 1' in the series. Mary McAleese attended the
Mass organised that evening.
This cache is a magnetic nano that hopefully shouldnt be too
hard to find. Free roadside parking is available at the cache
site.
I want to place a Church Micro cache too
The Church Micro IE series is open to everyone; if you have a
church you would like to place a cache at then please contact
THE_Chris through Geocaching.com. This is to keep track of the
numbers of the churches and give you the general format for the
cache page. In the UK there are ~1500 caches in the series so we
have some catching up to do! Also, if you currently have a
published cache at a church that you would like to include in the
series, get in contact and we can add it.