DEATH OF POPE BENEDICT XV.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2384, 26 January 1922, Page 1

DEATH OF POPE BENEDICT XV.

Borne, Jan. 22. When the late Pope regained consciousness on Saturday evening, he asked Cardinal Vico to say Mass in his chamber on the Sunday morning, but his wish was fated not to be fulfilled. To those around the bedside he said with a smile, “Do you know how much I have spent on doctors in my life? Two lire.” This was the last flicker of intelligence, (be heart .gradually ceased to function, and the Pope died on the fifth day of his illness. All his strength, however, had not left the dying man. Once he sat up, drank some water, expressed his willingness to dress and had to be gently restrained by the monk who acted as his nurse and his sister Countess Persieo, who was present with her two sons. There were also present Cardinal Giorgi and the Pope’s personal attendants. The death room overlooked the great piazza of St. Peter’s, and was provided with only the .simplest furniture —a brass bedstead, writing table, washstand and praying stool. In the courtyard below throughout the Saturday afternoon and evening the chief clergy, diplomatist's and leaders of Catholic society waited, while there was an animated scene in the square; crowds waiting until the small hours. Once the news came that the Pope had rallied. A monk cried: “A miracle!” and there was great excitement until a bulletin stated that His Holiness was again sinking. The King and Queen of Italy led the national solicitude and prayed for the Pope in their private chapel. King George V. sent telegrams of inquiry.

During a lucid interval the Pope said to old Dr. Battistini, “My dream was of great and human social questions” —this being reference to the problems of reconstruction. Later His Holiness also said, “Let us willingly offer our lives for the peace of the world.” Almost his last words were: “If the Lord desires mo sti’ll to labour for His Church, lam ready, but if He says, ‘Enough!’ (hen let His will be done.” The dying man took the Sacrament again at midnight, but could hardly hear the declaration “the Mass is finished,” though his lips moved as if in prayer. Masses were celebrated continuously in the chapel adjoining the bedroom, but the Pope was unable to follow them. A great change came at 3 o’clock in the morning. The Pope’s features became cadaverous in their pallor, the blood circulation was irregular, and the extremetics began to turn cold. His Holiness lost consciousness at 3.30, but just before he died his eyes opened for a moment and rested on the weeping group at the bedside. Then the rigidity of death supervened. The Pope had several times invoked the spiritual aid of the Madonna pf Pompeii.