The Papal Tiaras

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 33, 13 August 1903, Page 18

The Papal Tiaras

It was a striking moment in St. Peter's on Sunday when the Cardinal deacon (Cardinal Macchi), at the close of the solemn Papal Mass, placed the tiara or triple crown upon the head of Pius X. Of the several tiaras in the Papal treasury, that which was presented by the First Napoleon to Pius VII. in 1805, is a blazing mass of jewels. The jewelled cross upon its summit rests upon the largest emerald yet discovered. But it is po heavy as to be unwearable. The late Pope used two tiaras. One was the costly triple crown described on pp. 62-63 of the eighty-first volume of Moroni's ' Dizionano di Erudizione Storico-ecclesiastica.' It was made to the order of the last Venetian Pope, Gregory XVI It is adorned with some 200 precious stones of great value, among them being the enormous emerald of Gregory XIII. During the revolution of 1831, this tiara and many other sacred and precious objects were placed m the hands of a trusted servant of the Vatican and by him buried in a safe and secret place. The damp earth however, greatly damaged the tiara. Gregory XVI had it remade in 1833. In 1855 it was remodelled by Pius IX The other tiara used by the late Pontiff was presented to Pius IX. by Queen Isabella 11. of Spain in 1855 It weighs three pounds and is described as 'a, m Ti a ' n ° f brilliants, all white and of the first water ' -19,000 of the 20,000 precious stones which adorn it being diamonds. We may add that the reign of a Pope dates, not rom his election, but from his coronation, although o course, he enjoys all the prerogatives of ,hT TT, nn rr ° m the mm ° ment that he ac <luies C es in the choice of the Cardinal-electors.