POPE LEO XIII.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 336, 26 September 1879, Page 7

POPE LEO XIII.

The reigning Pontiff, His Holiness Pope Leo XIII., has been recently sketched in an attractive volume by the Abbe Vidieu, the Vicar of Saint Roch, whose work entitled " Le Pape Leon XIII. Sa vie, son avenement, sea ecrits," is published by Plon, of Paris. The Holy Father is described as tall and thin, and with a grand patrician air. He is spoken of as having a magnificent head crowned with white hair, strongly marked features, bearing about him the aspect of an ascetic, with something statuesque in the general appearance of his figure. His countenance is lighted by a piercing look, while his amiable and paternal smile goes straight to the heart of those he addresses. His voice is sonorous and captivating, but less mellow and at the same time more powerful than that of Pius IX. Pope Leo has " the double eloquence of the head and of the heart." Though he is moderate, he does not lack firmness. The day after his election, says the Abbe Vidieu, " Why," asked a new Cardinal of the new Pope, " have you taken the name of Leo ?" " Because," said his Holiness, "Leo XII was the benefactor of my family, and also because Leo signifies lion, and the virtue which seems to me the most necessary of all is the force of the lion. The Roman people are well aware of the meaning which the Holy Father attaches to the name he has taken. A 6turdy Trasteverian was heard to exclaim in an energetic and almost menacing voice : " The Liberals ask what will be the programme of the new Pope. He calls himself Leo ; that tells them all. Like Leo XII., he will be a lion, and he will have sharp claws and a powerful jaw." As illustrative of the same characteristic of the Pontiff, this anecdote is also related : " A rich American amateur, desiring to possess a bust of Leo XIII., engaged the services of the celebrated sculptor Tadolini. The latter, not content with a simple portrait of the Holy Father, went to the Vatican and asked permission of Leo XIII. to produce his features from the original. The Pope consented. The work finished, Leo XIII. congratulated the artist, who asked.him to have the goodness to trace a word on the still fresh clay. His Holiness took the pen that the sculptor handed and wrote with a smile, " Leo de tribu Judos /" Although in anything but robust health, His Holiness works hard— very hard indeed. He disdains tbe pleasures of the table. " I have never eaten so badly as at this table," a well-know Perugian once remarked. "He offered you for breakfast a tough mutton chop and a miserable pike, with an occasional glass of a white wine from the border of Lake Thraaimene, followed by a cup of black coffee. It is true that the worthy man himself drank only water and ate his boiled meat left from the night before. But no one complained of his frugal table ; on the contrary, everyone was delighted to sit at it." All Perugia knew, however, where the revenues of the prelate went ; the poor especially, on that point, were not ignorant.