The official medal of the sixth year of Pope Francis’ pontificate, went on sale in the Vatican today, July 26, 2018, states a Holy See press release. The piece is dedicated to peace.
Created by Chiara Principe, a young Italian artist, the medal portrays a dove from which concentric rays of light shine that illumine the Pope’s arms and refer symbolically to the Holy Spirit’s gifts to the Church.
Peace triumphs — an olive branch and a mother embracing her child–, in the upper part of the reverse of the medal. War is represented in the lower party (barbed wire, symbol of coercion and violence). The traditional poppy flower, symbol of those that fell in the War, separates the two scenes.
The phrase “Nothing is lost with peace. Everything can be so with war” is taken from Pius XII’s Radio-Message on August 24, 1939. “A century after the end of the first world conflict, the choice between peace and war is still for the whole world, dramatically daily,” stresses a press release.
On the edge of the medal there is the inscription E CIVITATE VATICANA (of Vatican City), with the medal’s number. Each copy is accompanied by a numbered certificate of guarantee, with an embossed stamp of the Secretariat of State and the Polygraphic Institute of the Italian State.
The number of pieces is limited: 30 medals in gold, 1,500 in silver, 2,000 in bronze and 30 Triptychs.
They are available at the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) and at LEV’s premises (Libreria Editrice Vaticana).
It’s not the first time that the Vatican chooses Chiara Principe’s work: to celebrate the 8th World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia in 2015, the Philatelic and Numismatic Bureau of Vatican City issued a s 2.30 euros stamp, created by the artist.
On the stamp, Chiara Principe designed three families of the world’s different ethnic groups, with the background of the main skyscrapers of the American city and the famous “Liberty Bell,” symbol of the American Revolution.
