The white flag on the window of the Apostolic Palace

This is followed by chats by the Camposantine Paul Maria Baumgarten about the excitement during the conclave, which convened at the beginning of August 1903 after the death of the aged Pope Leo XIII. At that time, the cardinals were literally locked up in the Apostolic Palace.

"If the Cardinal Camerlengo is responsible for discipline, peace and order within the Conclave, the Conclave Marshal is in charge of external security and the strict locking of doors and windows to prevent any contact with the outside world.
The office of Conclave Marshal is hereditary in the princely Chigi family and in 1903 Don Mario Chigi was Marshal. He had posted his guards around the Vatican palace to keep a close eye on the windows during the day and to watch out for any signs of light at night.

Cardinal Couillé of Lyon realised that these guards were keeping a close watch. He was sitting quietly praying the breviary in his cell when a clergyman rushed in behind him and said: 'Your Eminence, there is a white flag flying at your window which seems to be a signal. They have come to draw our attention to it'. 'Your Eminence,' replied the Cardinal calmly, 'I assure you that there is no white flag flying at my window. When they climbed up on chairs to investigate the matter, it turned out that the Cardinal was completely innocent.

But the white object was on the window above. The Cardinal who lived there was sweating profusely in the hot August days, and he had hung a shirt in the sun to dry, but there was no guilty secret hidden in its folds" (AAV Carte Baumgarten).

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Category: Roman notes