THE POPE'0S DAILY LIFE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3768, 8 June 1907, Page 3

THE POPE'OS DAILY LIFE.

A very interesting account of the Pope’s daily life is given in “ Pius X and the Papal Court,” published anonymously in Rome. At five o’clock- in the morning, when the bedroom attendant enters his room, his Holiness is already dressed and reading his breviary, as was his custom in the days of his priesthood. At six he says mass in a simple little oratory, and after breakfast he walks for an hour or so in the Vatican gardens. These cover many acres oi ground, and contain, besides flower gardens, orchards and vineyards, several small villas or summer houses, and a long and winding carriage drive, constructed by Leo XIII. The late Pope was in the habit of being carried down for his daily drive in great pomp, preceded by his Swiss soldiers, and followed by Papal chamberlains and Noble Guards. Pius X. takes long walks in the gardens, often alone seeking the quietest and most unfrequented paths, and sometimes stops to talk familiarly with the gardeners and any workmen whom he happens to meet. He dislikes the pomp and ceremonial that have usually been attached to every action of the Pontiff, and lives as simple a life as possible, disregarding all formalities that are not essential to his position. There is said to be little etiquette in his audiences, and only a few guards and a priest or two are in attendance, in marked contrast to the pageantry of the old regime. In all the arrangements of his life Pius X. uses the same humble simplicity. The author says that under his predecessors there were Monsignori who were paid so much a month, and had rooms in the Vatican, whose sole duty was to hold the Pope’s hat when he went out in the Vatican gardens, or who carried the stick or umbrella of the Pontiff, and there were others whcse functions were hardly more important. All these sineciue.; have been inexorably abolished, and the Papal household is now ordered on the most economical basis.