He entered the Benedictine Order on August 6, 1948. During the period when the Order was restricted, he was assigned to the Diocese of Győr, where he was ordained a priest in Győr on June 21, 1953. He left the country in 1956. From 1956 to 1960, he was a university student in Fribourg, Switzerland. He took his solemn vows in Rome on March 31, 1957. In 1960, he joined the seven Hungarian monks who founded Woodside Priory. It was here that his lifelong dream of becoming a teacher came true. For more than five decades, he served at the school as a teacher of Latin and German and as head of the language department. In addition to his work at the school, Father Pius served as prior of the monastic community and as a weekend assistant at several parishes in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, notably at Saint Denis Parish in Menlo Park and Our Lady of the Wayside in Portola Valley. It was his vision and efforts that led to the priory’s affiliation with Saint Anselm Abbey in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1975.