It was a happy thought of the Holy F ather to associate the present Jubilee Year with a Missionary Exhibition in the Vatican grounds, for among the modem activities of the Church the foreign missionary movement undoubtedly holds a conspicuous place. The initiative of the Holy Father, however, in convoking the Vatican Exhibition, was not the mere official action of the Holy See rightly guaging, with true statesmanlike instinct, the pulse of the times; it was something of a much more personal nature : the natural prompting of an intense personal interest, which has already gained for him in some measure the reputation of being the ‘Missionary Pope.’

Apart from the general scheme of the Exhibition, it was the Holy Father’s express desire that the picturesque element should not be excluded, in order to make it no mere ‘dry as dust’ statement of statistics, but rather a stirring and pictorial record of missionary enterprise that would attract and arrest the interest of the ordinary visitor. So well have the various Congregations concerned in the work—whose response to his appeal far exceeded all anticipation—succeeded in carrying out his wishes that the attractiveness of the exhibition admits of no gainsaying. It has indeed achieved in no small degree the desirable result of conveying matter of high educational value in a manner so attractive that it can scarcely fail to impress even the least intellectual visitor. Especially is this the case with regard to the realistic oil paintings, statuary of remarkable beauty, and particularly the numerous groups of life-size wax figures which illustrate the national habits, costumes and characteristic surroundings of the many races of the globe, from the frozen north to the torrid zone.