I.

To-day the scattered peoples of the earth— Haply the monarchs may not all forget— Pay unto thee, great Pope, their willing debt Of love sincere—blest debt of heavenly birth! We kneel afar, a people of to-day, Whose life but doubles in its hundred years Thy long episcopate of many tears; But none the less we love, nor ceaseless pray That He who leadeth Joseph like a sheep May bless thee with fair length of glorious days, May give thee yet triumphant voice to raise When men, with happy tears, shall vigil keep Of that great feast when Christian Rome no more In chains shall stand a world’s awed gaze before.