The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1902-04-12

than six ambulance corps, to complete
the service of order around the mighty
church. 1t was curious to see the com.
misSarieS and soldiers of the Quirinal
draw up peacefully almost under the
folds of the Papal flag which His Holt
ness Swiss Guards unrolled from the
bronze portal of the Vatican. Pres
emily, as O'clock tolled from dozens of
church towers, two gaps in the line of
infantry disclosed themselves, and the
multitude probably by this time fifty
| thousand strong, although they only
made one immense black patch on the
face of the PiaZZa) began to filter
through. Our tickets of invitation di-
rected us to enter by the cancello of
THE sacristy, and here again the fact
that words have different meaning in
st. Peters from what they would
mean if applied to any other church in
the world, was borne in upon us. Adj
mission by the slcristy would convey
to most of us a very simple and modest
operation; but the sacristy of st. Pet
ers and its environments would in
themselves furnish sufficient church
room for province. Having crossed
the forest o fpillars of the colonnade
(through two rows of which two cur
riages abreast could drive as through
forest path) we had to thread whole
streets which contain half ii dozen
minor churches and residences OF the
Pietrini for hereditary workmcn of st.
Peters, and old offices of the Inquisi-
ton, and even cemctcry-the oldest in
Rome, supposed to have been supplied
with earth from Calvary by Constan-
tine the Great-bcfore we arrive even
in the court yard where thousand
other ticket holders ambassadors.
great ladies, and chiefs of pilgrimagrs
with open eyes Of wonder We're, with
sunny Italian good humor. struggling
with another line of Bcrsaylicri mt the
great iron gate of the Scgrestia. And
having, with due patience. elhowGd
ones way through this ilustrious mob
of men in evening dress and women
with hcad-(rcsSes of black lace. we
had still to traverse 4 little world of
marbles, stat'lary and paintings, before
reaching the gigantic statues of IS
Peter and Paul which guard the en-
trance to the Basilica proper. For ''thc
Sacristy,' wherein the Irish country
village priest and altar boys don their
humble vcstmcnts, expands at St
Peters into three vast halls, or rather
chapels each with it's own gorgeous
apparel of marble walls and mosaic
pavcments and alabastcr affairs and
precious pictures screened by gauze
wells from the common light. and be-
You'd these again a corridor hallowcd
by the graves Of POpes, and treasury
in which the actual Dalmatic, gleam-
ing with pearls and gold, which was
worn by Charlemagne ut his corona
ton in st. Peters, aud the descent into
the crypts which compose the vast I'M
dcrworld of the great Cathedral, i'm
mense as a town of many streets, and
laden with it's own wondrous history of
dead Popes. and of the ancient Basilica
of the days when the Christians first
emerged from the Catacombs, and of
the still older days when the present
site Of ST. Peters was the Circus of
Nero, where Popes and their chief min
listers We're smcared with tar, and set
fire to rs human torches to light the
orgies. EX pede Uerculcm
If all this is only the sacristy, you
can guess what the church itself
must be.
Cro be continued next weekly