The daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Beltrami Co., Minn.) 1903-1904, 1903-07-22
RESIGNED AND CALM TO THE LAST
PARTING WORDS WERE BENEDIc-
TIoN ON CARDINALS AND
HIS NEPHEWS.
CARDINAL OREGLIA NOW SUPREME
ASSUMES DIRECTION OF AFFAIRS
UNTIL LEo's SUCCESSOR
is ELECTED.

is ELEC Ell.
Rome, July 22-Pope Leo XIII. is
dead The last flicker Of life expired
at four minutes past four o'clock yes
-terday afternoon and the pontiff now
z lies at rest.
The period of over two weeks that
Pope Leo passed in the shadow OF
death was no less wonderful than his
life. His splendid battle against dis
ease was watched the world over with
sympathetic admiration and ended
only after series of tremendous eff.
forts to conquer the weakness OF his
aged frame by the marvellous Will
power of his mind. The pleuro-pneu-
monia with which his holiness had
been suffering was scarcely so respon-
sible for his death as that inevitable
decay of tissue which ensues upon
ninety-three years Of life. The tested
steel which had bent SO often before
human ills was
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
adjoining adjoining the death cham,
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 pontiH will
be in the magnificent basilica of st.
John the Lateran.
Pope Leo's final moments were
marked by that same serenity and de-
yotion and, when he was conscious,
that calm intelligence which is asso-
ciated with his twenty-five years
pontiflcate. His was an easy death.
An hour before he died, turning to DR..
Lapponi and his devoted valet, Pho
Centra, he murmured:
4'The Pain Suffer Is Most Terrible
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 cruciflX 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 Vanrutelli had inn
pressively pronounced the absolution
In articulo mortis. The condition Of
his holiness varied from agony to
coma.
Of the supreme moment DR.. lap
/Sponi gives an impressive description.
He said:
death occurred through exhaustion,
although in the last two hours Pope
Leo made 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 marvellous display of
his energy and even 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. TIE 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.
II 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. Righi,
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
we're occurring. The death of Pope
Leo meant the passing of the supreme
power into the hands of the sacred
college of cardinals as its temporary
custodian during the interregnum.
The perfect administrative machin-
ery of the church provided against
the slightest interruption of the gov