The Daily Life of Leo XIII.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 450, 1 March 1890, Page 3

The Daily Life of Leo XIII.

Bv W. L. Ai.den. The Pope of Rome, who is officially called Leo XIII., bub whose name is Gioacchino Becci, was born at the little town of Carpineto, in the Yolscian Mountains, south of Rome, in 1810. He is therefore a very old man, and he has been for several years very feeble. It is nob known that he suffers from any particular disease, but lie becomes very easily tired and is then said to be liable bo fainting fits. The Rope lives in the Vatican Palace, close to St, Peter’s Church. This palace is secured to him by the Italian Government, whose officials cannot enter it without the Pope’s permission. lb is a little kingdum by itself, and within its walls the Pope has his own policemen and his little company of Swiss Guards. He never leaves the Vatican—at least so it is said—for fear of being insulted by the Roman populace. It is however, believed by many people that he occasionally drives out in a closed carriage after dark, and last winter, when his brother was dying in the Palazzo Barberini, the Pope went to see him.

The Vatican is an enormous building. It is said to contain four thousand rooms, though ib is not known that anyone ever counted them. Undoubtedly it does contain a vast quantity of-rooms, but it is probable that there are nob quite four, thousand of them. In the Vatican is one of the most celebrated museums in the world. The finest statues, the greatest paintings, the most valuable antiquities and the rarest books and manuscripts have been collected from time to time by the Popes, and arc freely shown to all visitors who wish to gee them. In the Vatican Palace are also many beautiful courtyards, and a magnificent garden. Leo XIII. sleeps in a large, bare room, with high ceiling and a tiled floor. Like all the room* in the Vatican it has no carpet, and it is very plainly furnished. It contains a small iron bedstead, a little table, a writing-desk, a prie-JJieu, and two or three chairs. One or two rugs are laid on the floor in winter time, and during the day the bedstead is shut off from the rest of the room by a curtain. The Pope rises every morning at about 6 o'clock, puts on the dress of an ordinary priest, and at 7 o’clock says mass in his private clnpcl. When this mass is finished another is said by some other ecclesiastic, to which the Pope listens kneeling. These two masses last until about 9 o'clock, when he takes a cup of chocolate or coffee, with bread, and then begins the work of the day. About 1.30 the Pope eats his principal meal. This consists of soup, boiled beef, a vegetable and occasionally a little roast meat. He drinks a glass or a glass and a half of generous wine, usually Burgundy. The dinner sometimes ends with fruit, bub the Pope is so feeble that he is compelled to be extremely careful as to his diet. _ He is, moreover, naturally very abstemious, and his table expenses, exclusive of wine and groceries, do not exceed a dollar a day. Much of his wine is sent to him as a gift. He always eats alone and after dinner he sleeps for a short time. At 8 o’clock he has a supper of bread, cold meat and salad, and about 10 o’clock, after listening to prayers, he goes to bed, unless he has visitors whom he is anxious to see.

in pleasant weather Leo takes the air in the Vatican garden after he has had his nap. Latterly he has been too feeble to walk and has either been carried in a Sedan chair or has driven in a carriage. He is always attended by one of his Guards, who follows a little way„ behind him. Frequently some bishop or other important person with whom the Pope wishes to confer walks beside the carriage or the chair and converses with him.

As the head of the largest church in the world, the Pope is necessarily a very busy man. He is almost constantly employed during his working hours in receiving persons who come to see him upon ecclesiastical matters of importance. Then he has to receive diplomatic agents and to listen to reports without number. In addition to the people who have business with the Pope which makes it necessary for thorn to see him, he also receives from time to time pilgrims, foreign tourists, Protestants, and all'sorts of people, some of whom wish to see him because they are devout Homan Catholics, but the majority of whom are impelled simply by curiosity, and neither know nor care that the courteous old gentlemen who receives will have to sit up later and work harder in order to make up for the time that he has given them. Several times during the winter the Pope says mass publicly at an early hour in the morning. This is done to gratify the thousands of the faithful who fwish to see and hear him. Sometitiies the mass is said in the Sistine Chapel and sometimes in St. Peter’s. For many years the Pope and his predecessor, Pius IX., had refused to enter St. Peter’s for the same reason that they refused to show themselves in the streets of Rome, but on the occasion of the Pope's Jubilee last year he was so much pleased with the success of the affair that he decided to break through his previous rule and to say mass in St. Peter’s. Since then he has quite frequently entered the church, though few of the great ecclesiastical ceremonies that formerly took place in St. Peter’s at Christmas and Holy Week are now to be seen. The Pope is a venerable-looking old man, with a kind and cheerful face. He speaks with a nasal twang, which is rather more marked than that of the Connecticut farmer. This is partly due to the snuff of which, ike many Roman ecc’esiastics, Ue is very

fond. He does nob smoke and he is nob at all excessive in his use of snuff, but his physicians do not object to it, and it is doubtless a great comfort to him. ■Notwithstanding hi 3 exalted position, few people would find much to envy in the daily life of Leo XIII. He must be very lonely, in spite of the crowds of people whom he sees, for old and feeble as he is, he must eat and sleep alone, and probably he has no intimate friend. His whole life is passed either in religious exercise or in discharging the business duties of his high office. °He works incessantly and has no recreation except his walk or drive in the Vatican garden. His pinch of snuff is perhaps the only real worldly 7 comfort that lie has. The income of the Pope, which consists chiefly in money given him by faithful Roman Catholics all over the world, is large, but, as is evident from what has just been said, he uses veiy little of it for himself. Although he lives in the largest palace in the world, his daily personal expenses are little more than those of an ordinary parish priest in Italy. Of course the cost of the entire Vatican household, which is like a little town, is by no-means small, but after defraying these expenses, the greater part of the Pope’s income is devoted to religious or charitable uses. The age of Leo XIII., together with his physical weakness, renders it improbable that he will live much longer. It;will be difficult bo find a successor who will command such universal respect and esteem as the present Pope has gained even among those who are politically or religiously 7 opposed to him.