THE MAKER OF THE ROSE d'OR.

Otago Witness, Volume 02, Issue 2420, 2 August 1900, Page 64

THE MAKER OF THE ROSE d'OR.

There was, the other day, a certain amount of stir in Rome when all the cardinals and bishops, clothed in red and purple gowns, were seen attending a funeral which everybody thought was that of a very great man. It was not so, however. Those grandees were there simply by order of the Pope, who wished to pay this supreme honour to a mere workman in his employ. Truth to tell, Pietro Santelli was not an 'ordinary personage, for he could prove his pedigree down from the fifteenth century, and in a direct line ; furthermore, the family iiad always lived in the same residence where Pietro died, in the immediate neighbourhood of St. Peter .

'As a matter of fact, it is a simple shop fcyhich has scarcely been renovated after $he "gout dv jour " where was fabricated for years past the "Rose dOr," " the good i mark given to the Queen whose behaviour tas been the" best during the year," as LeoXIII, playfully puts it. The Rose dOr ■costs his Holiness the sum of £&000, and £he Santellis 3 were paid £800 for this delicate piece of workmanship, which occupied them nearly the whole year. It is made of massive gold, and the stem measures about 4ft in height. The blossom, which is more a dog rose than a garden rose, is composed of mosaics, on which are engraved the name of the holy sender, the date of the envoy, and the enumeration of the virtues of the favoured one.

The petals of the rose are strewn with diamond powder, representing the dew of Heaven. The huge branch used always to be delicately laid in a case of blue satin, where here and there came out in relief small silver roses beautifully chiselled. However, when; in 1892, the. Pope sent the Rose dOr to Queen Amalia of Portugal, he received such a tremendous bill for the^ -case that he decided in future to send thn rose on a bed of soft cotton wool, wrapped in a piece of silk.

The eending of the Rose dOr causes a great deal of expense to his Holiness besides the making of it, for it cannot be taken to 'its destination by a simple messenger, but is entrusted to the care of two gentlemen belonging to the first Roman nobility, who receive £600 each u o defray the cost of their journey. , Ths ceremonial for the reception of therose is very complicated, and so regulated ihat Leo XIII, in spite of his wish to offer it to Madame Carnob, the wife of the fornier President, saw how difficult ib would be for the Government to fulfil in this case the laws of etiquette.

1 To begin with, a Court carriage, trimmed all round with garlands of white roses, either raal or artificial, must be in readiness at the station to receive the ambassadors of the Popa. Then ths troop?, in full uniform, must be fathered in the t>ahce courtyard and srret them on their arrival by a beating of drums. On alighting from the carriage the eldest

of the noble messengers has to carry above his head the precious case containing the Rose dOr, which he deposits in the reception room on a table prepared for it, and on which is thrown a white silk cloth fringed with silver. Almost directly afterwards mass is said by a bishop in the chapel of the palace, where the lady Sovereign takes her place under a white canopy, having the elder messenger on her right and the younger one on her left.

After mass she returns to the Throne room and sits on the Royal seat, having the elder messenger beside her, while the younger one reads aloud an autograph letter from ' the Pope, and slowly swings three times the golden branch, which he delivers at last into the hands of the bishop.

Then the prelate delicately poses the rose against the heart of the Queen, and says : "Ecce Rosa mystica, donnum Sanctissimi Patris." The lady kisses the flower, and answers : "Deo Gratia." And the ceremony ends by a glorious Te Deum.

If the Oueen has a.Kingf of her own ho offers on the spot to the Pontifical Ambassadors the most important decoration at his disposal. When the Rose dOr was granted to Queen I«abella of Spain, she, however, performed the second part of the ceremony all by herself. The ambassadors bring back to the Pope a letter of thanks from the Queen and her portrait handsomely framed and be-jewelled.