The Vatican does not lack for items of beauty to display. The important thing to communicate is that the item often conveys a Holy meaning beyond merely the aesthetics. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Vatican postage stamps are not surprisingly printed in Rome. Nearby Vienna is more well known for skill of stamp design and production but carries perhaps too much baggage regarding “Holy” Roman history. The Rome based engravers did seem to take extra effort on the Vatican stamp issues.
Todays stamp is issue A135, a 220 Lira stamp issued by Vatican City on June 15th, 1967. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations honoring the 1900th anniversary of the martyrdom of Disciples and Saints Peter and Paul. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.
The land on which Saint Peter was martyred in Rome was owned by a Christian woman named Lucina. She had built a tropaeum that became a site for veneration of Peter. In the late days of the Roman Empire, A Basilica was built on the expanded site. The Basilica was one of the four major ones located in Rome and the only one outside the walls of Vatican City. Outside the Walls is sometimes included in it’s title. It is still owned by the Vatican and considered their territory in the manner of a foreign embassy.
The Basilica has been the recipient of a few challenges over it’s many years. In it’s first hundred years it was heavily damaged by a lightning strike. In 846 AD, Rome and the Basilica were sacked by Arab raiders called the Saracens. The raiders did not penetrate the walls of Vatican City so the position outside was critical. In 1823 there was a huge fire during a renovation that required a total rebuilding. The alter had been constructed over Saint Peters sarcophagus, making it impossible to see or touch. This was remedied, if that’s what you want to call it by making it visible on one side recently. The Church must be fairly confident that there will not be a visit by modern Saracens.
For most of the life of the Basilica, it was the home of the Latin Patriarch of the Egyptian city of Alexandra. The city went vast majority Muslim many years ago. The Christian community however was divided between allegiance to Rome or Constantinople after the Eastern schism within the church upon the breaking in two of the by then Christian Roman Empire. The argument over the Egyptian Coptics went on for 1000 years until 20th century Catholics first left the position empty and then abolished it. The Basilica is currently managed by an Archpriest. Today that is Cardinal James Michael Harvey, from Milwaukee, USA.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the city of Rome. The presence of the Papal enclave has added many complications to the city over the many years. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting.