The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1922-01-23
End of Pope Benedict Came Aft
er Long Night of Intense
Agony and Suffering
tsx The Associated Press,

! breathed his last at g. 90 o'clock this
morning. The news was hurriedly
communicated from the papal bed
chamber to the principal ante-cham-
/ ber, and was announced by Monsignor
Pizzardo, deputy papal secretary of
state, just as the ponderous bell of
St Peters, overlooking the vatican
courtyard, began tolling the hour of
I6. Then, one by one, the bells in
! Rome's 400 churches Joined in the hor-
/ ologic symphony that marked the
passing of the head of the Roman
Catholic church.
: The end came after a long night of
intense agony and suffering, the pom
! tiff now and then lapsing into delir-
ium throughout the long, anxious
night. Shortly before midnight he
took q little nourishment, which SEEM
| ed momentarily to revive his spirits,
but within an hour afterwards he be-
gan to sink rapidly. At lis o'clock
DR.. Battistini, emerging from the pom
tiffcal chamber into the ante-room,
told the Associated Press correspon
dent the end was approaching, that al
ready his hands and nose felt cold.
''He will live only three or four
hours at the maximum" said the ply
sician.
From that period on, the pope near
ed the end of his life. Breathing be-
! came a tragic, agonizing task, as the
! supreme pontiff, who had resisted the
severe lung and throat congestion, was
now finally too weak to overcome the
overwhelming attack any longer.
! lis eyes were half closed as he
Iapsed into unconsciousness while the
terrible mastery which pneumonia had
+, won over the holy fathers dogged re-
sistance a resistance which staggered
i the members of the pontifical house
hold and made them marvel at the
pope's nerve stamina, now began its
rapid, inexorable extinction of his
slender hold on life.
His heart rapidly weakened, and at
5 o'clock in the morning it was Ger
, tain that the end as but a matter of
moments. Accordingly, Cardinals
Gaspari, Samper and Pizzardo, and all
the pontifical household were notified
that the end was rapidly approaching.
Cardinal Gaspari entered the bed
chamber at $50 o'clock, passing
through the ante-chamber, wearing
deep burrows on the brow of his
bowed head and walking with short,
rapid steps to the bedside Of the dying
pontiff. He had been there only nine
minutes before the pope breathed his
last.
Cardinal Giorogi, grand plenopoten-
tiary, attended the pope throughout
the whole night, saying first mass for
his holiness shortly after midnight.
Only half an hour before he died his
holiness tried to lift himself up and
wished to dress himself but he was so
weak he sank back on to his pillow.
His hands and feet already were
numb, and it was plainly seen that
deaths cold grip had begun it's unre-
leasing grasp upon the holy father. 1t
was at this moment that it was de-
cided to call all the pontifical family
to his bedside. The noble guards
were sent out in due solemnity to no
tify the papa1 secretary of state of the
pope's hopeless condition.
The correspondent was permitted to
remain during the entire sickness Of
the pope in one of the adjoining ante
cham bers through which all the cardi-
nails passing to and from his holiness
bedside could be seen. Looking down
the narrow passageway leading from
the antechamber to the pope's bed
chamber, the royal guards, standing at
rigid attention, were observed at the
entrance to the sick room, while the
cardinals passing to and fro were
awaiting the impending announce
ment.
Yesterday evening, virtually all the
Cardinals resident in Rome were in at
tendance at the Vatican, their arrival at
the Pontifical apartment being occasioned
hy solemn reverence on the part of those
present. The ambassadors from Spain,
Argentina and Portugal called at the
apartment towards midnight for news.
but nothing except imminent death could
be. foreseen at that time.
After midnight the crowd which had
waited many long hours around the court
yard diminished TO only a few monsignors
and attaches Of the Pontifcal court. The
Vatican now was enveloped in deep si-
Ience and forboding darkness with the
ponderous dome Of st. Peters dominat-
ing the pervading gloom. No one was
allowed 10 enter the Vatican, and the
spacious halls became almost deserted,
with only an occasional guard quietly
pacing the corridors and staiTcases
+ Swiss guards were stationed at the
outer door to the Pontifcal apartment
on the top floor and on the inside Of the
same door there were two huge Papal
gendarlns Then at the entrance of the
large ante-chamber. at the other end Of
a short corridor, was stationed a cor
poraI Of the Swiss guard dressed in the
ancient, quaint, Raphaelian gsrb, who
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