The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1903-07-24
Bound to Break at Last.

oAAo WIS II
Bound to Break at Last.
To-day the sacred college of cardi-
nails will assemble for the impressive
ceremony of officially ~pronouncing
Pope Leo dead. After this sad func-
ton has been performed the body will
be taken to the small throne room
Der, where it will be embalmed. The
funeral ceremonies will extend over
nine days, the remains being removed
to the cathedral of st. Peters, where
they will lie in state. The ultimate
resting place of the dead pontiff will
be in the magnificent basilica Of St.
John the Lateran.
Pope Leo's final moments were
marked by hat same serenity and de
votion and, when he was conscious,
that calm intelligence which is asso-
ciated with his twenty-five years
pontiicate. His was an easy death.
An hour before he died, turning to DR..
Lapponi and his devoted valet, Pho
Contra, he murmpied:
1.-THE Pain ! Suffer Is Most TerribIe."
Yet his parting words were not of
the physical anguish that he suffered,
but were whispered benedictions upon
the cardinals and his nephews, who
knelt at the bedside, and the last look
of his almost sightless eyes was to-
ward the great ivory ~crucifix hang
ing in the death chamber. Practically
all the cardinals now in Rome, kneel-
ing at the bedside, watched the pass
age of his soul. Earlier in the day
Cardinal Serafino Vannutelli had i'm
pressively pronounced the dissolution
in articulo mortis. The condition Of
his holiness varied from agony to
coma.
OF the supreme moment DR.. Lap
POM gives an impressive description.
He said:
Death occurred through exhaustion,
although in the last two hours Pope
Leo made a supreme effort to gather
together all his energies. He succeed
ed in recognizing those about him by
the sound of their voices, as his
Sight Was Almost Lost.
Still he made a marvellous display of
his energy and ever his death was
really grand. 1t was resigned, calm
and serene. Very few examples can
be given Of a man of such advanced
age after SO exhaustive an illness
showing such supreme courage in dy-
ing. The pontiff's last breath was
taken exactly at four minutes past
four. l approached a lighted candle
to his mouth three times, according to
the traditional ceremonial, and after
ward declared the pope to be no more.
l then went to inform Cardinal Greg
liza, the dean of the sacred college,
who Immediately assumed full power
and gave orders that the Vatican be
cleared of all curious persons having
no right therein. Contemporaneously
the cardinal instructed Mgr. Right,
master of ceremonies, to send the
Swiss guards from the Clementine
hall to close all the entrances to the
Vatican and
Dismiss All Persons
from the death chamber, the body be-
ing intrusted to the Franciscan peni-
tentiaries."
Meantime, events of momentous i'm
portance to Catholic Christendom
were occurring. The death of Pope
Leo meant the passing of the supreme
power into the hands Of the sacred
college of cardinals as it's temporary
custodian during the interregnum.
The perfect administrative machin-
cry of the church provided against
the slightest interruption of the gov
erning authority. AS the senior mem
Der of the sacred college Cardinal
Oreglia, to whom the pope yesterday
solemnly conided the interests of the
church, has now become the exponent
80 >u,