Lessons on humility from 20th-century Vatican secretary of state who slept on a straw mattress

At just 38 years of age, Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val assumed one of the most influential positions in the Church upon being appointed Vatican secretary of state by St. Pius X.

A brilliant diplomat born into an aristocratic family, the cardinal had an exceptional intellectual background, spoke several languages, ​​and earned the pope’s trust through his discreet loyalty and profound interior life.

Merry del Val was already working in the Curia during the pontificate of Leo XIII. Following the pope’s death, he was appointed secretary of the 1903 conclave, an event marked by the historic veto exercised by the Austro-Hungarian emperor against Cardinal Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro, who was considered a top favorite to succeed Leo XIII. That episode altered the course of the election and paved the way for Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto, the future St. Pius X, to become pope.

“When he was named pope, he went to the ‘Chapel of Tears’ to pray, and he even wept. It was a time of great persecution for the Church, and he felt that perhaps he was not up to the task, as the situation required someone of great fortitude,” Father Álvaro Serrano Bayán explained to EWTN News Español, the…