New-York tribune., 1921-04-01
Solemn Ponp
Marks Cardinal
Gibbons Burial
Church and State Officials
Unite at Pontifcal Req
uiem Mass to Honor
Baltimore's Archbishop
Papal Chant Stirs Crowd
Thousands Stand Hours in
Rain Until Prelate's Body
Is Placed in the Crvpt

BALTIMORE, March 31.-James Car
dinal Gibbons. Archbishop of Balti-
more, was buried to-day with all the
honors that the Catholic Church could
eestow on one of its princes.
Into the Cathedral of the Assumption
Of the Blessed Vrgip Mary-the great
whole life revolved-poured prelates
of equal rank, diplomats and statesmen
from Washington, high officials of the
land and state he had served, and mem
bers of his own flock Outside, in the
rain, were massed bareheaded thou
SANDS. who. unable to press into the
church, stood reverently for three
hours while the Pontihcal requiem
mass was being sung.
During the long service--as picture
FIJI as a tapestry of the Middle Ages
suddenly become ishop
John j. Glennon, of St. Louis, took the
pulpit, and looking down on the bier
Of fellow churchman eulogized the
late Cardinal as "the great leader and
soldier, the great legislator, the far
visioned educator, the great patriot, the
kindly, gentle old man
Buried in ~ypt
The service ended shortly before j
o'clock. after the absolution of the
body, and the long recessional streame
from the Cathedral.
Then came dusk. With the fall OF
evening tender hands lifted the frail
little body of the churchman from the
great purple catafalque on which it had
rested in state for four days and placed
it in a simple coffin Of cardinal red
Then the casket was borne to the white
marble crypt under the sanctuary, in
which the bodies of six other arch
bishops already were sealed. A simple
ceremony, witnessed only by the closest
and dearest-and then the door of the
vault swung to.
In this manner James Cardinal Glib
bons was laid to rest beneath the
cathed dral in which he had been bap-
tized, in which he had been consecrated d
to the service Of God, in which he had
been named the youngest Bishop of his
time, and in which, in later years, he
had been elevated to Archbishop and
Cardinal.
The last requiem was a thing Of
beauty-a symphony of sound and
color
The cathe edral was half filled when
the head of the professional entered
the doors shortly before 10 o'clock
The laity were seated from the rear of
the church forward to the foot of the
oandle-lighted bier on which rested the
body of the Cardinal in his Arch
bishops vestments and miter. The en-
tire forward part of the cathedral was
reserved for the clergy
The organ pealed. Into the church
fled double column Of seminary Choir
isters. Behind them came priests al
most without number. There were the
white -surpliced secular clergy and
then members of various religious or
ders - Paw sts and Redemptors
Sulpicians and Jesuits, Passionists
Dominicans in white and sandaled
Franciscan monks in rope grt habits.
Rain Changes Plans
Rain. falling as the procession
started, caused slight change in plans
for the procession. Instead of march
ing into the cathedr from Calvert
Hall College with the priests of lesser
ranks, as had been intended, the alb
bots and arch habbots. bishops and arch
bishops, Cardinals O'Connell and Begin
and Archbishop John Bonzano, Amos
tolc Delegate, filed in from behind the
altar, after having entered the church
from the archiepiscopal residence in
the rear.
Into the cathedral there filed also
members of the faculty of the Catholic
University in Washington, wearing their
caps and gowns. The scholars, with
their hoods of blue and red, orange and
gold, turquoise and green, and the
churchmen of high rank, in their
brilliant ceremonial robes. seated them
selves with the white -surpliced clergy.
1t seemed as if to the area behind
the altar rail- moment before can
vas of white, there had been touched
a painters brush. In an instant it be
came a tahleau from the early history
of the Church. The laity in their
twentieth century dress and the clergy
in their time -honored attire meeting
at the bier of the Archbishop of Balti-
more. seemed like contrasting cen
turies.