ON THE VATICAN ROOF

New Zealand Tablet, 11 August 1910, Page 1257

ON THE VATICAN ROOF

People have been lost in strange places from time to time, but perhaps no more novel instance of such straying is to be found than that given in the recent autobiography of an aged physician in America, Dr. Gregory Doyle, of Syracuse. On the Vatican roof the doctor lost himself, and thus tells his experience: ' In my enthusiasm to see as much of Rome as possible I made the ascent to the top of the dome of St. Peter's. On the way down from the pinnacle I stepped out on to the roof as I reached the base of the dome. Here I became bewildered, as I could not find the proper door leading to the great descending stairway. I wandered over the vast roof for nearly an hour before I could find anyone to show me the exit. •In the meantime I utilised my exalted detention by examining and studying the various works of art with which the roof of this great church is adorned. Many former Popes have placed above the cornices their coat-of-arms in finely chiselled marble, giving dates and so forth relating to important events of their respective reigns. At last my deliverance came in the person .of one of the attendants who lived up there. By the way, a great many persons dwell in little casas on the roof, but as they were nearly all on duty below, I found it difficult to capture one when I wanted him. ' On another occasion I was on this same roof when the great bells of St. Peter's suddenly tolled out to the world that a Pope had been elected to succeed Pope Leo XIII. To fully describe my sensations- on that memorable occasion would be impossible. Being so near the mammoth chimes, the noise was fairly deafening but wildly musical. The great bells rang out with such vigor and so rapidly that the edifice fairly trembled under us. The strokes of the bells could not be distinguished on account of the prolonged vibrations of the chimes. At a distance the airs, no doubt, could be made out, but to us in the midst of the clamor it seemed more like the buzzing that might come from a colony of a thousand beehives, with each noisy bee as big as a polar bear.'