Editing Pope Leo XIII (section)

== Audiences ==

[[File:Pacelliordenado.jpg|thumb|165px|left|In 1901, Pope Leo XIII welcomed Eugenio Pacelli, later [[Pope Pius XII]], on his first day of 57 years of service in the Vatican (1901–1958).]]

One of the first audiences that Leo XIII granted was to the professors and students of the [[Collegio Capranica]], where in the first row knelt in front of him the young seminarian Giacomo Della Chiesa, the future [[Pope Benedict XV]], who would be pope from 1914 to 1922.

On a pilgrimage with her father and sister in 1887, [[Thérèse of Lisieux]] attended a general audience with Pope Leo XIII and asked him to allow her to enter the [[Carmelite order]]. Even though she was strictly forbidden to speak to him because she was told that it would prolong the audience too much, she addressed him with the Pope telling her: "If it is God's will that you should enter the Convent, then it shall be".[a story of a soul]

There are several versions of a story of how Leo came to compose the [[Prayer to Saint Michael]]. Various dates are given. A common account says that on the morning of 13 October 1884, Leo XIII celebrated Mass but as he finished, he turned to step down the stairs and allegedly collapsed, falling into what was originally thought to be a coma, but was rather a mystical ecstasy. As the priests and cardinals rushed to his side, Leo XIII rose and visibly shaken, brushed off his aides and rushed back towards his apartment where he immediately wrote the Prayer to Saint [[Michael (archangel)|Michael the Archangel]]. Leo XIII reportedly saw a vision of demons being released from Hell, and as the vision ended, he saw Saint Michael charge in and drive them all back into Hell. Leo XIII mandated that the prayer be said after every Mass from that point forth.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

In 1934, a German writer, Fr. Bers, tried to trace the origin of the story and declared that, though the story was widespread, nowhere could he find a trace of proof. Sources close to the institution of the prayer in 1886, including an account of a conversation with Leo XIII about his decision, say nothing of the alleged vision. Bers concluded that the story was a later invention that spread like a virus.<ref>"Like a perpetual sickness" – "Die Gebete nach der hl. Messe", ''Theol-Prakt. Quartalschrift'' 87 (1934), 162–163</ref>

In July 1884 Pope Leo received the French author [[Jules Verne]] and his family in a private audience; he was aware of Verne's scientific style of writing.<ref>Costello, Peter ''Jules Verne, Inventor of Science Fiction'' London 1978  pp159-60  ISBN 034021483X</ref>