At ten minutes after 12 Pope Pius
X. appeared inside the balcony of the
Basilica and blessed the populace,
amid the acclamation of the enormous
crowd assembled upon the piazza.
The choice was made on the seventh
ballot and carries out the oft-repeated
prediction that *he new pontiff would
be of Italian birth.
What is regarded as even more sig
nificant than the new pope's national
ity is the fact that he is generally be
lieved to have been favored by Leo
XIII. for the august office to which he
has now been elected.
It was not more than a year before
his death that Leo, in conversation
with Father Lorenzo Perosi, the Italian
POPE PIUS X.
composer, referred to Cardinal Sarto,
the patriarch of Venice, in now his
toric terms.
"Hold him very dear, Perosi," said
his holiness on that occasion, referring
to Sarto, "as in the future he will be
able to do much for you. We firmly
believe he will be our successor."
Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto was born in
1835 and in his sixty-eighth year is
raised to the papacy. He was created
Cardinal and Patriarch of Venice by
the consistory of June 12, 1893
The new pope was born in Riese, in
the province of Venice, on June 2,1835.
His education he received at the
Salosian institute at Cattolongo
His work as a priest lay within
Venice, where he had a parish in one
of the poorer districts, to the mem
bers of which he gave close attention,
ministering to their wants and in
firmities.
