ITALY: Notes, Sep. 1, 1924

The body of Deputy Giacomo Matteotti, assassinated some weeks ago by some person or persons unknown, but suspected and in custody awaiting trial (TIME, June 23 et seq.), was returned to the dust in the cemetery of his home town near Rome. Soldiers paid him military honors for the State; 8,000 persons attended the funeral.

In the crypt of St. Peter’s, a tomb lay covered with flowers. Heavy candles diffused their ethereal light, revealing black-draped and kneeling figures, bent in devout prayer. A slight murmur of subdued voices disturbed the restful silence. Occasionally, the firm voice of a prelate would rise above the murmur as he pronounced a benediction, or sometimes low, sad chants would break the stillness. Close to the tomb were two elderly sisters of the dead, absorbed in reciting the Ave Maria, as they tremblingly counted their beads. All that long day, figures shuffled in and shuffled out of the crypt, crossing themselves repeatedly. It was the tenth anniversary of the death of His Holiness, Pope Piux X—Pio il buono, the Romans call him.