their own in 1896; then he reorganized the Greek college, introducing a number of obvious improvements. He reformed the famous Greek monastery of Grottaferrata, and insisted that in it the Byzantine rite should be followed in a more correct form; at the monastery he founded a college for the Italo-Greeks. During the Turkish-Greek War of 1897 the Turkish Government ordered that all Greeks in the Empire should be expelled. It was Leo XIII who intervened and prevented this harsh order from being carried out, thereby saving both Uniates and Orthodox from misery.
Lastly, towards the end of his long reign, this great Pope, who had already given so many proofs of his care for Eastern Christians of all rites, wrote his Encyclical Præclara gratulationis (June 29, 1894).[1] In this he addresses first Catholics, then other Christians. So he comes to the Orthodox:[2] "First of all," he says, "we turn a look of great affection to the East whence came salvation to the world. We have glad hope that the Eastern Churches, illustrious by their ancient faith and glories, will return whence they have departed. This we hope especially because of the no great distance which separates them from us; so that, when little is removed, in the rest they agree with us; so much that for the defence of Catholic doctrines we take arguments and proofs from the rites, the teaching and practices of Eastern Christians." And he assures them again that "for all their rites and practices we will provide without narrowness."[3] He did not expect to see reunion with the Eastern Churches in his own lifetime. "Because of our great age," he said, in 1893, "we do not expect that it will be granted to us to see the happy event; but we salute it from afar and try to hasten it by our prayers."[4]
Pope Pius X followed in the steps of his predecessors. To show this it may be enough to remember the thirteenth centenary of the death of St. John Chrysostom at Rome. The chief ceremony of this was the Byzantine liturgy, sung with every possible solemnity in the Hall of Beatifications of the Vatican on February 12, 1908. The liturgy was celebrated by the Melkite Patriarch, Lord Cyril VIII, with a great number of con-celebrants in the presence of twenty-four Cardinals, the Syrian Catholic Patriarch, Ignatius Ephrem II, and the Pope himself. Pius X assisted in state, and as a
