The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-03-07
AND LIFE OF
THE SISTERS OF THE POPE

spite the quiet and retirement of their
lives in their modest apartments near
the great square of st. Peters, have
been several times written up since
the accession of their distinguished
brother to the papal throne, but never
SO admirably and interestingly ats by
Mrs. Margaret B. Downing, an Ameri-
can newspaper woman who was at one
time Washington correspondent of the
! Universe. Mrs. Downing writes as fol-
lows in the Baltimore Sun:
There go the Sorelle Sarto," said a
Roman monslgnor to a group of waiting
| Americans in one of the Vatican ante
chambers the other day.
They are going into the garden, and
| when the Holy Father has finished his
| work for the afternoon he will join them
and they will walk together and chat
and eat some of the peaches and grapes.
Sometimes they sing the old Venetian
songs-the gondoliers' ballads-for the
Holy Father loves those old melodies,
and now he hears them only when he
and his sisters are together"
! The elderly Italian women passed BY
! black-robed as nuns and wearing the in
evitable veil partially concealing their
| features. They had been to make their
weekday visit to their brother. but af-
fairs of state had kept him chained in
|
! them in the garden.
So they passed through the inner
court. we'll known to all suppliants for
! Papal audiences, and went down the
| stairs which lead into the vast enclosure
called the Vatican gardens. Presently
the Americans were called up higher,
and after going through numerous
chambers gorgeous in crimson silk they
came to the small audience chamber
| -l,.0,.x
cial visitors.
He is a benign and gentle Pontiff, this
| Pope, who is the two hundred and six
| ty-fourth successor of st. Peter, the
! Vicar of Christ of earth and the bearer
| of many other titles of tremendous sig
nificance in spiritual realms.
! But in the midst of the awe which
everyone must feel in the presence of
so august a parsonage came the vision
of an old man sitting in the garden with
his sisters and singing the songs of his
| eXiled home. That is the picture of
Plus x which must appeal most forci-
bly, to those who study the personal
side of great men.
| The Sorelle Sarto, which is italian for
the Sarto sisters, in their modest
suite of apartments in the Piazzo Rusti
cucci, just at the feet of the grand col
onade Of Bernini, guard their privacy
as carefully as the queen in her palace
on the Quirinal Hill. They have as at
| tenda1its two faithful lay sisters from a
| nearby convent, and no unauthorized
visitor can hope to evade their vigilance.
| These lay sisters have laid aside their
| conventional attire and are robed like
| the general Italian house servant.
| Twice a week the three old ladies go
| to the Vatican-always on Sunday. to
hear the Mass which the Pontiff says in
! his private chapel, and at some ap
| pointed time during the week. They
avoid publicity in every manner posi-
BILE, going and coming without the
slightest ceremony and shrinking from
strangers with the timidity of country
| children.
One can understand the depth of char
acter in the Pontiff by a very slight
knowledge of his sisters. All the world
| knows how they begged that the title
of countess" should not, in accordance
with Papal tradition, be conferred on
them, and how they love to be known
simply as the sisters of the Holy Fa-
| Their.
Their door plate bears the simple in
scription, 1.-The Sorelle Sarto," and with
in reigns the simplicity which their il
lustrious brother has evolved for his
living rooms out of the magnificent
apartments in the Vatican. Their sit
ting room is an imposing apartment.
with pale green walls and ceiling, and
a somewhat pretentious suite of furni-
ture, relics of the former grandeur of
the historic palace
But the sisters. like all Italian wo-
men of the humber classes, divide their
time into three parts-one for labor, one
for prayer and one for sleep. They new
er think of such a thing as sitting down
with their hands folded. They invaria-
bly, carry scissors at their sides and
wear working aprons.
Rosa is the eldest of the Pontif's
three unmarried sisters, and is per-
sonage of much Importance in the
household she is very fond of her
young niece, Ermingilda Paroltn, the
daughter of the oldest of the six sis
tiers. Theresa, who mrried the grocer of
Riese.
Ermingilda spends much time in
Rome, and gowns herself very modish-
ly. and is learning French and music at
the Sacred Heart convent. Doubtless
her good aunts hope that she Will marry
suitably man who can give her more
comforts than they or their great broth
er knew.
To his sisters the Pontiff is only Bep-
ri. the name he loves best, for so his
mother used to call him. He is still the
devoted brother to these old women, to
whom he seems almost divine. He tells
them all the things about his visitors
which he thinks will interest them He
gives them such personal presents CIV
en- him that will be appropriate in their
humble home.
A bishop from the Rocky mountains
recently presented the Pontiff with
magnificent bearskin rug, and this
handsome gift occupies the place of
honor in the sitting room of his sisters
He gave them also his most cherished
possession, which they show only rev.
erent1y and on special occasions-the
jeweled and gorgeously Illuminated al
bum which contains all the signatures
Of the Venetians, sent after the election
Over the mantel in the sitting room
is a portrait done in oils of the little
peasant mother-she who worked at
dressmaking in order to make the ex-
ira money required to keep her tai
ented boy at school. A similar picture
hangs in the pontiff's bedchamber.
The Sorelle Sarto use bright red
handkerchiefs, and their ways OF living
are as plain as when they lived In
Riese They have horror of any kind
of extravaganza, and only their broth
md RI Keen the