The record-union., 1893-01-24

nuence OF Its ministers. What VIII he
come of the Christian people when thoy
are deprived OF the necessary teachers Of
childhood, of the men who comfort the
widow and the orphan. of those who
soften the pains and labor OF the present
life by the thought and hope OF the life To
come, VINO wipe away the tears OF the az
hicted, who direct the doubling and hest
tatlng by words of good counsel and
cheer the last hours of the dying?n
In 1854, made remarkable III Perguia
by the elevation of Mgr. Pecci to the car
dinalate, central Italy was threatened by
famine. The Cardinals fatherly fore
thought had already suggested the estab-
Ishment OF monti frunentari or deposits
Of grain in every country parish, and he
gave an example to all by opening in the
episcopal residence itself a free kitchen
for the poor. True son of Countess Anna
Pecci, be was mindful of the example of
the mother on whose tomb is inscribed,
Feeder OF the Needy"
HIS SIMPLE LIFE.
For thirty-four years the Cardinal Arch
bishop kept his pastoral charge in Peru
gia. His life had been always as simple
as triar's; the daily mass, long prayer,
constant work and the frugal table Of an
old-tashioned Italian (even as Pope it is
said that the cost Of his table is but 100
francs (S20J a month y had kept his mental
and bodily vigor so high and fresh that
when at 81 he was called to the Pope's
side it was not to rest that he went, but to
new duties. In July, 1877, he accepted
the office OF Cardinal Camerlengo to Plus
IN, post involving Presidency Of the
Apostolic Chamber and the chief charge
OF the temporalities of the Holy See.
From the summer to the next February
this duty lasted. Then came another
trust. At the death Of the Pope it was
the Camerlengo's office to render the last
services. to close the eyes, to prove the
death according to the old solemn form
ula, to preside at the magnificent obse-
quies. On the evening of the 18th of
February. 1877, Plus al, whose long
reign had been emblematic Of the title
conferred upon him by the prophecy,
cruz tie C1Uce, died; on the Goth Of the
same month Cardinal Pecci was elected
by the votes OF his colleagues to be his
successor and took the name Of Leo
XIII.
1t must have been indeed a solemn
scene when, robed in his immaculate
white cassOck, mozetta of crimson velvet,
the fisherman S ring on his finger, and on
his head the white skull cap OF the Popes
the new Pontitf, after receiving the hom-
age of his Cardinals, appeared before the
expectant multitude to raise his hand for
the first time in POntifical benediction.
The whole basIlica was one mass OF
heads, the people being packed so closely
as to be unable to kneel. The Pope knelt
down against the balcony and hid his face
i'll his hands. When he rose to his feet
and, i'll a voice powerful and sonorous,
though somewhat tremulouS with feeling,
intoned the blessing, the solemn hush
tnat followed was broken by a cry that
rang through that great space-''Niva
Papa LeOnel"
The ceremonies attending the corona
ton Of a Pope have been handed down
from the earliest times, and are many of
them most impressive; not the least is
that by which the Pontiff is gently re-
minded that humility is to be his crown
ing virtue even in the highest position Of
the church; that the pomp is due to his
Office and should not blind him to his
own unWOrthineSS. An eyewitness of
the last coronation thus describes this de-
tail of the ceremony:
"When the Pope was borne out into the
full light OF the Sala Regia clad in full
pontihcals, he appeared above the heads
Of all in the rays of the Roman morning
sun, backed by the tlabelli, gorgeous
picture framed by the door OF the Sistine.
The nave was kept absolutely clear for
the wide and long cortege. When it had
arrived at point half way between the
door of the chapel and the cancello, it
stopped, ana a clerk bearing pole sur
mounted by three iron prongs, lighted at
a taper the piece Of tow ON one Of them,
and kneeling in front of the pontiif as the
flame blazed up and as suddenly expired,
chanted i'll a plaintive minor, "Pater
Sancte, Sic Transit Gloria Mundi." The
animated face OF Leo XIII. assumed a
grave expression, he slightly bent his
head and leaned back in his throne with
the look of one to whom the solemn truth
was by no means strange. When the last