Excerpt from Life of Pope Leo XIII: From an Authentic Memoir Furnished by His Order Written With the Encouragement, Approbation and Blessing of His Holiness the Hope Archbishop of Baltimore. Your Eminence: It is most fitting that this biography of Leo XIII., the work of an American priest, should be dedicated to you. You have shed a new lustre on the See of Baltimore, first filled, a century ago, by John Carroll - an ever dear and honored name among Americans - since adorned by the learning of a Kenrick and the eloquence of a Spalding, and hallowed by the apostolic virtues of the archbishops who preceded and followed them. Two years have not passed since the Christian world beheld you, at the head of eighty-six prelates, opening the Third National Council of Baltimore, the most important ever held in the New World. We all know now with what exceeding care the Holy Father had prepared and disposed all things for this great assemblage. He would have the work done there to be considered in a special manner his own. In the impossibility of presiding in person, he committed to you the charge of representing him; he followed the proceedings of that august body with absorbing interest, and approved of their acts with often expressed satisfaction. In raising to the supreme honors of the Roman Purple the Apostolic Delegate who had so admirably presided over these momentous deliberations, Leo XIII. has fulfilled the wishes and prayers of the American Church and ratified the judgment of the entire American people. That Your Eminence may be spared to see Religion extend her sway while our Republic advances in all that constitutes Christian civilization, and that the teachings and examples of the life herein sketched may become to our land the Lumen in Coelo foretold long ago, is the prayer of Your devoted servant, Bernard O'Reilly, S.T.D. Rome, June 3, About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.