Pope Pius V (17 January 1504 – 1 May 1572), born Antonio Ghislieri (from 1518 called Michele Ghislieri, O.P.

), is Pope from 1566 to 1572 and is a saint of the Catholic Church.

He is chiefly notable for his role in the Council of Trent, the Counter-Reformation, and the standardization of the liturgy.

Pius V declarez Thomas Aquinas a Doctor of the Church and patronizes prominent sacred music composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

As Cardinal Ghislieri he had gained a reputation for putting orthodoxy before personalities, prosecuting eight French Bishops for heresy.

He had also stood firm against nepotism, rebuking his predecessor Pope Pius IV to his face when he wanted to make a 13-year old member of his family a cardinal and subsidize a nephew from the Papal treasury.

In affairs of state, Pius V excommunicates Elizabeth I of England for schism and persecutions of English Catholics during her reign.

He also arranges the formation of the Holy League, an alliance of Catholic states, who, although outnumbered, famously defeat at the Battle of Lepanto the Ottomans, who had threatened to overrun Europe.

This victory Pius V attributes to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and institutes the feast, Our Lady of Victory.