POPE LEO AT HOME.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1030, 20 December 1883, Page 2

POPE LEO AT HOME.

The Capitan Fracassa of Rome publishes a conversation which one of its correspondents had with the Rev. Philip Barry, canon of the Cashel Cathedral. The canon is said to have spoken as follows ; —“ Leo XIII. is now 74 years of age. He is tail, thin, and bony. His face is of an ivory tint, and his eyes and lips are very expressive and smiling. He looks very firm. Simoni says he resembles Voltaire, but Leo XIII.’s smile is totally different from Voltaire’s smile. The Pope wears his age well, and walks remarkably straight. He has snow-white hair and very finely-marked eyebrows. His eyes are wonderfully intelligent-looking, and his voice is extremely harmonious. He speaks several languages as well as any professor of languages. He never says a foolish thing nor does a foolish thing, like poor Pius IX., whose policy: was fatal to the Pope’s temporal power. He rises very early, and spends the first hours of the day in prayer and generally in his bedroom. At 6 o’clock

he says mass. At 8 o’clock he breaks his fast with a cup of chocolate, reading his correspondence all the time. At nine o’clock he receives Jacobim, and those chiefs of religious society who may demand an audience. At noon he receives those Roman patriarchs who have remained true to him and his ambassadors. At one o’clock he dines, his dinner rarely costing more than two francs, or half a dollar.” “ And he keeps so many cooks?’ said..th& correspondent. “He is obliged to keep up appearances,” answered the canon. “ Once upon a time Popes were great eaters and drinkers, and were given to every kind of extravagance; but Leo XIII. is nothing of all this. After dinner he takes a little walk in the Vatican grounds, or he visits the museums, galleries, etc. Sometimes he is carried in a chair quilted with white satin. He is very fond of the garden, and liices to play the gardener at times. He frequently receives visitors in the garden, and talks of flowers to them to avoid other subjects. The first and second time 1 saw him was in the garden. When I went with the pilgrims he was preceded by three noble guards, and at his side was Monsignor Macchi, his secret Chamberlain. He wore a wide-brimmed hat and a large red cloak. We were presented to him one by one. He looked at us and scrutinised us well, I saw he recognised me, but he treated me like the others—as if he saw me also for 'he first time. ‘ Are you all Irish ?’ he said ; ‘ I' am happy to receive the faithful of that nation.’ He then looked again at us as if he would have read into our souls. * Your bishop,’ he continued, ‘brought_me offerings from a people pressed with poverty.’ Then, seeing me still on my knees, he offered me his hand to raise me, ‘I had thought,’ he continued, ‘ that the offerings would have decreased, but it was not so. We live on charily’ (and here he smiled sadly); ‘ for all we had has been taken from us. Oh, these persecutions !’ he cried, with a loud voice; * they purify, us, even when the leaven is pure and immaculate.’” “I seem to see him now,” said the canon. “His head looked like a relief on the blue sky. The sun was setting, and he looked up to the sky, as if seeking an inspiration there. ‘ I have heard,’ he then said, ‘ that notwithstanding the general state of the anguish in Ireland, the churches are full of people. May the Lord be praised and blessed, and may my prayers bring peace on the people ! Lord, hear our prayers and judge us !’ He then blessed us arid the audience was finished. I have riever seen so much power, united to so much simplicity. At 4 o’clock the Pope resumes his official audience in the Vatican. At 7 o’clock only he takes a little rest, but at 8 he returns to work in his private rooms, where he remains until 10 o’clock, when he retires for* the night, not always to sleep though, for it is during the night that he reads and writes (or his own pleasure, his favorite subject being the ‘Science of St Thomas,’ and essays on the works of that saint, which he receives from every part of the world, whenever and wherever published.”