On Friday, August 21, the Friars will be remembering a special patron of the Society of the Atonement. Initially founded as a new Franciscan community in the Episcopal Church in 1898, by Servant of God, Fr. Paul Wattson, and Mother Lurana White, the Society of the Atonement sought the unity of all under God. After more than a decade in this promotion of unity, especially promoting the reunification of the Episcopal and Catholic Churches, the Society petitioned Rome to be accepted into the Catholic Church.
As the Church celebrates the Feast Day of St. Pius X, the Friars will be remembering him as the Pope who accepted the corporate admission of the Society of the Atonement into the Roman Catholic Church in 1909.
There are many tributes of gratitude to St. Pius X at Graymoor. The Friars’ main building at Graymoor that serves as the Friars’ worldwide headquarters, home to the Graymoor Spiritual Life Center, the Graymoor Bookstore, and the St. Pius X Chapel is named after St. Pius X. A nine-foot granite statue of him is attached to the outer building near a front entrance. His coat of arms is imbedded in the terrazzo floor at another entrance. Another statue (pictured above) stands near Fr. Paul’s tomb atop the Holy Mountain.