JUBULEE OF LEO XIII.

Motueka Star, Volume IV, Issue 168, 31 March 1903, Page 5

JUBULEE OF LEO XIII.

His Holiness the Pope, Leo XIII. on 20th February celebrated the 25th anniversary of his accession to the Papal tin one, and was the recipient of thousands of congratulatory telegrams from, all parts of the world. Pope Leo XIII is the 258th successor to the throne of Peter. He was born in ' the family palace at Oarpineto, near Signia, in 1810. His father, Count Luigi Pecci, was a man of little note ; his mother, Anna Presperi Curi, traced her descent from Rienzi, and was a woman of notable piety. While in minor orders Pecci was attached to the Papal household, and was ordained priest in 1837. r i*he first public office to which Monsignor Pecci was appointed by Gregory XVI. the then resigning Pontiff, was the governorship of the province of Benevento, in the Papal States. Brigandage and disorder were rife in] the province but he was completely successful in dealing with both. When thirty three years of age, Monsignor Pecci was pieconised titular Archbishop of Damietta, and sent as nuncia to Brussels, presenting his credentials to Leopold I. in February, 1843. In that city the newly consecrated prelate became acquainted for the first time with diplomatic usages: 111 health was the chief cause of Nuncio Pecci's retirement from Brussels, the winters being too severe, and early in 1846 he took possession of the see of Perugia to which he had been nominated, in response to the petition of the people, who gratefully remembeied his rule as civil governor. In 1853 Pius IX. created the popular archbishop a cardinal. In July, 1877, Pecci was appointed Cardinal Camerlengo to Pius IX., an office which gave him chief charge of the temporalities of the Holy See and the Presidency of the § Apostolic Chamber. On the death of Pius IX. on 7th February 1878, Cardinal Pecci was elected / Pope on 20 February. The coronation *- took place in the Sistine Chapel ou Sunday, 3rd March, 1878. Ihe "Berlin Tageblatt" on February 13 published a most remarkable interview which its R)me correspondent had with the Pope's physician, Professor Mazzoni, regarding his Holiness's health :—"What, the Pope ill !" laughed the Professor. 'He is so well that we might envy him. Except for a slight hoarseness, which was easily cured, nothing has ailed Leo XII. these last two years. He is tinly a phenomenon. He grows older in years, but, paradoxical as it may seem,

he appears to gain vigour each year. At the beginning of every new decade of the Pope's life it was prophesied that it would be the last, but it never cmne true. Mark my words the Pope will live to be a hundred years old and longer, and even then he will enjoy life as he does to-day. What should the Pope die of, anyway? He has the constitution of a young man. All his organs are in perfect working order. He leads a regular life and consumes very little alcohol. His Holiness reads without spectacles, walks without a cane, dresses and undresses without assistance, and works about 14 hours daily. Really one can hardly believe that Leo XII. should ever die !"