BY PRISCILLA GREEAR

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--In 1904 the famous Belgian artist Joseph Janssens, trained under German and Belgium masters, created a pencil etching of Pope Pius X which he presented to a cousin, Ludovic Janssens, as a wedding gift in 1907.

On Oct. 9 of this year that etching of the only modern pope to be named a saint was presented during a Mass to the school bearing his name, St. Pius X High School. It was accepted on behalf of St. Pius by principal Donald T. Sasso, Father John Hopkins, LC, and Father Richard Lopez and is now displayed outside the school library.

In May 1997 Ludovic Janssens' grandson, Philippe, discovered the work while cleaning his mother's attic, and as he was preparing to send his son, Dimitri, on an exchange program to St. Pius X High School. In light of the extraordinary coincidence, he had the work restored and agreed to send it on loan for several years to the school. Dimitri, whose great, great uncle is the artist, is currently attending St. Pius and is being hosted by John and Sara Pilger, parents of St. Pius freshman, Eric.

The sitting for the original portrait of Pope Pius X was arranged by the artist's brother, His Eminence Dom Laurent, the first rector of the Abbey of St. Anselme, who wrote a letter to the artist describing the man he was to paint.

"What is most extraordinary in the pope is an expression of beauty which is almost not of this world. There is in the countenance of Pius X, five elements of which each has a special value: the quickness of his intelligence, the firmness of his determination, the goodness of his heart, the warmth and radiance of his face, and an intense asceticism mixed with a certain sadness, the holy sadness of the Saint made of humility and a longing for heaven," the letter said.

Joseph Janssens, who completed his apprenticeship under Ludwig Seitz in Rome, was the first artist to paint a portrait of Pope Leo XIII and he painted over 500 portraits in his career. His finished portrait of Pope Pius X was destroyed, probably during World War II. The etching presented to the matrimonial couple in 1907 confers on them an apostolic blessing from the pope.