Pope Pius X first Polish pope?

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So I was reading Dr Taylor Marshall’s book ‘Infiltration’. You may have read it or you may not and I’m sure some people like Taylor Marshall, while others aren’t keen on him. Either way there’s a lot to take in when reading this book, but being Polish, there was a specific thing he wrote that got my attention (well a lot of things got my attention, but this one actually caused me to get in touch with him).

In the book, he writes that John Paul II wasn’t the first Polish pope, Pius X was, because his grandfather was a Polish immigrant who moved to Italy and changed his name to a more Italian one.

It was the first I had heard of this, so I decided to do some digging on the internet. Turns out, there are a few sources that say Pope Pius X did indeed have a grandfather from Poland, but they were not necessarily websites I would call credible. I’m not discrediting them, but let’s just say, there were not sites I had heard of before. I also found some websites saying this information about Pius X being the first Polish pope was just a rumour and wasn’t true, and that there was a meeting in Szczecin in Poland (in 2016 I believe) of prominent historians and scholars, who reached the conclusion that he didn’t have a Polish background.

Unable to find a definite source on the internet that could put my mind at rest, I decided to contact Taylor Marshall on social media and ask him what his source was. After ignoring me at first, he eventually replied when I wrote to him again, and told me he got the information from a website called ancestry.com. I must admit I thought he might have a better source than that, even though some reviews I read about ancestry.com said it’s a good and accurate website for finding out people’s ancestry. Still, his source didn’t convince me.

My question is, have you heard this theory that Pope Pius X is actually the first Polish pope, and if so, do you believe it and/or know of any good more official sources that could confirm or deny?
 
Well yes, this is the official information that you, I and many have come to believe, but others are saying this isn’t the case. I take it you see these as crackpot theories then?
 
I agree with DV1. Having one grandparent from Poland does not make Pope St. Pius X a Pole, especially since he move to Italy. I have two grandparents from Norway, which makes me twice as much a Norwegian as St. Pius X is a Pole, but my national identity is American.

D
 
I suppose that sounds fair. In his book, Taylor Marshall wrote it like some type of revelation though. ‘Did you know, John Paul II wasn’t really the first Polish pope’?
 
I just looked at Ancestry.com. I found 28 family trees that included Pius X, 2 of which say he had a polish father. One of them claimed Jan Krawietz was called Giovanni Sarto, as if that were the equivalent translation. Most show his father as Giambattista Sarto who was born 10 years earlier in Italy.

None of the trees I saw had any sources to back up their claims. (The trees that had sources were mostly private.) Family trees on ancestry are often reliable because birth, immigration, military records are accessible there and can be connected to ancestors. When no records are cited as the source of info, the info can be unreliable. Even when records are cited they can be wrong.

My impression from that quick look is that there is not much to support his polish ancestry at Ancestry. I will look for more later, but it seems unlikely. Sarto was known as a simple Italian peasant, which does not quite fit with having a polish father. But stranger things have been found.
 
I read Infiltration as well. I recall Dr. Marshall saying that St. Pius X was the first ethnically Polish Pope, not the first Polish Pope.
 
Nope, I distinctly remember him making a point of saying John Paul II wasn’t the first Polish pope, not just ethnically Polish.
 
Interesting. Ever since I read Infiltration, I assumed that he was.
 
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It’s been a couple months since I read the book, but I referred back to it just now and this is what he wrote:

“A lesser known fact is that Pope Pius X, not Pope John Paul II, is the first ethnically Polish pope—both his parents were Polish immigrants to Italy.” (Pg. 44)
 
Okay well you’ve got the quote, so it turns out he did say ethnically. I didn’t remember that.

However, as people are saying here, it seems that he wasn’t even ethnically Polish, so it is still false.
 
What an odd position. Does he go through the entire list of popes, dissecting their heritage?

Does any of this even matter?

We live in an age cursed with excess free time.
 
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ioannes_pius said:
“A lesser known fact is that Pope Pius X, not Pope John Paul II, is the first ethnically Polish pope—both his parents were Polish immigrants to Italy.” (Pg. 44)
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It’s not true at all, and even more extreme than the usual version of the legend, which says that one of his grandfathers was an immigrant, which isn’t true, either.
 
po18guy said:
What an odd position. Does he go through the entire list of popes, dissecting their heritage?
Click to expand...
Marshall is a specialist in odd positions. He doesn’t seem to be fastidious about his sources. He probably picked this up from some post by a Polish nationalist on some alt-right forum.
 
Life is too short.

We live in the mis-information age.

Point: If we are all descended from that first couple, what is the purpose of nationality? Geographic or cultural loyalty?

Again, life is too short for this nonsense.
 
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Even if Pope Saint Pius X isn’t Polish, it shouldn’t matter at all. I would still love him all the same even if he came from the Congo jungles.
 
Well I wasn’t suggesting him being or not being Polish is good or bad, I just wanted to get the facts right on this.
po18guy said:
What an odd position. Does he go through the entire list of popes, dissecting their heritage?
Click to expand...
No but in the book he does go through quite a few popes and analyse their good and bad traits.
 
I’ll be blunt, as I am very good at it.

An utter waste of your time.

Read something uplifting, something that applies to your faith life. Read the Saints. It will bring tears.
 
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