OBITUARY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20965, 3 March 1930, Page 8

OBITUARY

CARDINAL MERRY DEL VAL. (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) s ROME, February 28. The death of Cardinal Merry dej. Val is announced. ’ y Raphael Merry Del Val, brother of the Spanish Ambassador in London—a post also held by his father—was born in London in October, ISGo. It was only to be expected that, as he had grown up in the atmosphere of international diplomacy, his career in the church should from the outset take that direction. He studied in London, Namur, Brussels and Rome, and became in 1887 a Papal Chamberlain. He visited England as a Papal envoy in connection with Queen Victoria’s jubilee and the coronation of .King Edward, and attended the funeral of Kaiser Wilhelm I in the same capacity. He also went on an educational mission to Canada.

In 1897 he was appointed domestic prelate to the Pope, and in 1898 Consuitor of the Congregation of the Index. From 1898 till 1903 he was president of the Aecademia Pontifica dci Nobili Ecclesiastica. In 1900 he was made titular Archbishop of Nicaea, and on July 21, 1903, he became secretary of the Conclave and Secretary of State ad-interim. In the latter position be was confirmed by Pope Pius X on October 10, 1903, and was finally made Cardinal and Secretary of State in November. This post he filled .throughout the entire Pontificate of Pope Pius J>* that is, till September, 1914. The new'Pope Benedict XI appointed Cardinal Gasparri in His stead. Merry del Val, who under Pius X had been made Archpriest of the Vatican, now undertook the duties of Secretary of the Holy Oihce, MR BEN RUDD. . The death occurred at the Public Hospital yesterday morning,' after a short illness, of Mr Ben Rudd, well-known to residents of Dunedin as the Hermit of Flagstaff. Mr Rudd, who was 70 years of age, came to New Zealand as a young nian and took up residence in the KaL korai Valley, where lie followed the occupation of gardener, having served his apprenticeship as a gentleman’s gardener in England. His ability in this direction was exceptional, and up to the time when he left the Kaikorai Valley to take over a small farm near the top of Flagstaff, about 40 years ago, he was one of the best known gardeners in the city. In 1919 Mr Rudd sold his farm and came to Dunedin, where lie resided for about 18 months, but the peacefulness of his past life, compared with the bustle of the city, caused him to return to Flagstaff, where tie pitched a tent on the site of his more recent residence. Here he lived a solitary existence until illness inert oolc him on February 2.".