After signing the Lateran Treaties (Pacta Lateranensia) on February 11, 1929, and thus resolving the so-called Roman Question (questione romana) and establishing the Vatican City State in its current form, the Pope ceased to be a voluntary prisoner of the Vatican. The Holy Father Pius XI decided that on July 25, 1929, a solemn Eucharistic procession would take place, in which he would go out with the Blessed Sacrament to St. Peter’s Square to solemnly celebrate the „liberation” of the Bishop of Rome.
The procession started from the Sistine Chapel and passed through the Apostolic Palace and the portico of St. Peter’s Basilica to reach St. Peter’s Square through the colonnade and right cloister. The Holy Father was carried on a special platform called a talamo, not seen since the pontificate of Pius IX. An altar was erected in the square, from which the Pope gave everyone the blessing with the Blessed Sacrament. The areas adjacent to St. Peter’s Square – partly closed to use – were guarded by the military. The ceremony, which lasted about an hour, was attended, according to estimates at the time, by 250,000 people, including many priests and seminarians from all over the world who had come to Rome for the theological congress taking place at the time.
We present a collection of 10 photographs taken by papal photographer Alberto Felici, son of the famous Giuseppe Felici, which show the course of the Eucharistic procession with Pope Pius XI on July 25, 1929. The photographs belong to the CR collection. Open the selected photograph in a new window to view it in full resolution:
In the archive of the Italian Luce Institute we can find more photographs, but they are made available in much poorer quality and are completely covered with watermarks, which makes them significantly more difficult to consult (to view the photo in full resolution, open it in a new window):
