News

A Day at the Vatican Post: the Outbound Gateway to the World

Interview with Stefano Rossi and Ermanno Croci, operators of the Outbound Mail Department of the Governorate’s Postal and Philatelic Service

Just steps away from Bernini’s Colonnade in St. Peter’s square is a place where, every day, thousands of fragments of people’s lives—postcards, letters, parcels and registered mail—begin their journey to every corner of the globe. This is no ordinary post office: it is the Post Office of the smallest State in the world.

Bishop Vincenzo Viva presides over the Solemnity of Saint Clare of Assisi at the Poor Clare Monastery in Albano

Poverty lived with joy

“The acceptance of frailty as an instrument for personal sanctification and as a means through which God can act had, for Clare, a very precise name: poverty lived with joy.” With these words, Bishop Vincenzo Viva of Albano presided over the concelebrated Eucharist on the feast day of Saint Clare of Assisi on Tuesday afternoon, 11 August, at the Poor Clares’ Monastery of the Immaculate Conception, located within the territory of the Pontifical Villas in the town of Albano.

The Mater Ecclesiae Monastery Garden Becomes 100% Organic

The history and practices of sustainable cultivation in the Vatican Gardens

In the Vatican Gardens, next to the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, lies a small vegetable garden whose history stretches back to the Middle Ages. It was Pope Nicholas III Orsini who, when he transferred the papal residence from the Lateran to the Vatican between 1277 and 1280, also commissioned an orchard and a proper viridarium [elegant garden], enclosed within the new walls: a productive space that also helped supply the papal kitchen.

Vatican Euro Coin Set Unveiles New Color and Design

The new Vatican collector coin set, the first issued during the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV, draws direct inspiration from the Pope’s coat of arms, reproduced on the cover with a chalk-effect finish and embossed on an ivory background. Deep blue color highlights the inscriptions and key graphic elements, echoing the colors of the two heraldic fields of the papal coat of arms. This same color palette will become prominent in the new packaging design that will accompany future numismatic issues. This is not merely an aesthetic choice, but a genuine tribute to – and direct reference to – the new pontificate.