Royal Nuptials

Not since Gregory IX came with the pomp & majesty of his Papal Court to sanctify the bones of the ecstatic little man who was born Francis Bernardone and to bless the foundation of the church of St. Francis rising over his grave, has little hillside Assisi been thrilled as it was last week. The stiff coattails of the bearded, bustling proprietor of the Hotel Subasio flapped with excitement, mayor and corporation excitedly talked plans for two days. Even the Franciscan brothers in the monastery, the Poor Clares in their convent, read their offices with a certain worldly detachment. For Princess Giovanna, next-to-youngest daughter of King Vittorio Emanuele of Italy, was coming to Assisi to be married to little Tsar Boris of Bulgaria.

To make the wedding possible, last minute concessions were made by the Bulgarian Government which, three weeks ago, was still demanding that the prospective eldest heir male of their King & Queen should be reared Bulgarian Orthodox. As Princess Giovanna is Roman Catholic, the Vatican continued to insist that all her prospective children be reared Roman Catholic, finally won this point last week.

Despite repeated despatches from Sofia itself stating that under the Bulgarian Constitution the heir to the Throne must be Bulgarian Orthodox, the articles in question actually read:

Article XXXVII. The Eastern rite of the Orthodox Christian religion is the State Religion in the Kingdom of Bulgaria.

Article XXXVIII. The King may not profess any other religion than the Orthodox religion. Exception is made for the present King. (The "present King" meant was King Ferdinand, father of Boris, who was reigning in Bulgaria when the Constitution was last revised in 1911. Ex-King Ferdinand, who abdicated in 1918, has always remained Roman Catholic.)

Choice of Assisi as the scene of the wedding was made entirely by Princess Giovanna. St. Francis is her patron saint, she is actually a Tertiary or lay sister of the

Franciscan order.* In the refectory, brown-robed friars reminded each other last week that years ago-when Princess Maria, little sister of Princess Giovanna, was desperately ill, Giovanna had come to Assisi to make her novena, had sworn that if Maria recovered she, Giovanna, would be married at the tomb of St. Francis under the walls made glorious by Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337), greatest of "primitive" mural painters.

Because it was utterly impossible for little Assisi (population 5,353) to house the wedding party, the Italian royal family and their most potent guests prepared to sleep on a railway siding down in the valley, occupying three special trains: i) the Blue Train which brought Marie Jose of Belgium to Rome for her wedding to Italian Crown Prince Umberto; 2) the Maroon Train, generally used by the Italian Royal Family; 3) a more gaudy, less comfortable relic known as the "Old Train" assigned for the wedding to Tsar Boris, his father Ferdinand, brother Cyril, sister Eudoxia.

Because one church was not enough to honor the meekest of medieval men, the gothic builders of Assisi built two churches to St. Francis, one on top of the other. Princess Giovanna decreed last week that her marriage should take place not in the larger, airier upper church, but in the lower, holier one beneath, whose high altar covers the saint's tomb.

On Oct. 25 the wedding procession was to form inside the upper church, march out the west door and up a grassy hill, then round the corner down through the colonnaded, cobblestoned pilgrim's courtyard to the portal of the lower church. Two hundred young girls of Assisi (practically every available one) were named last week "attendants of the Princess," received white satin dresses donated by her. Soldiers, Fascist militia, torch bearers were told off to line the way.

Prime Minister Benito Mussolini hastily canceled an engagement to speak in Rome on Oct. 25, promised to be in Assisi on the day set by Princess Giovanna. For Il Duce, obedient to Royalty though he may have seemed last week, the marriage is a great personal triumph. He has now lined up Bulgaria with Albania and Hungary in the "iron ring" of pro-Italian nations he is slowly forging around Italy's No. 1 Balkan enemy, Yugoslavia.

*A famed male Tertiary was the late Miguel Primo de Rivera, Dictator of Spain, buried in the brown gown of a Carmelite.

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