Pope Leo XIII

Trivia

• Pope Leo XIII awarded a gold medal http://www.wings.buffalo.edu/aru/preprohibition.htm to a fashionable 19th century cocaine-based drink called Vin Mariani, the drink that inspired Coca-cola. Vin Mariani was also praised and used by Queen Victoria and Pope Saint Pius X.
• Pope Leo XIII was the first Pope of whom a sound recording was made. The recording can be found on a compact disc of Alessandro Moreschi's singing. Leo was also the first Pope to be filmed on the motion picture camera. He was filmed by its inventor, W. K. Dickson, and blessed the camera afterward.
• Leo approved the foundation of a Catholic university in the United States in 1887, which became The Catholic University of America.
• At the time of his death, Leo XIII was the second-longest reigning pope, exceeded only by his immediate predecessor, Blessed Pope Pius IX (unless one counts Saint Peter as having reigned from the time that Jesus is said to have given him "the keys to the kingdom" until his death, rather than from his arrival in Rome). Leo XIII's regnal length was subsequently exceeded by that of Pope John Paul II.

See also the list of papal coincidences.

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