This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR), founded by Pius XII on 27 June 1942 with the Chirograph l’Istituto per le Opere di Religione. The words “Opere di Religione” (religious works) as noted in the statutes has a twofold meaning and refers on the one hand to charitable work from the apostolate and pastoral activities, such as support for a diocese, a parish, the opening of an oratory or a school, a welcome center, a hospital, a home for families, the restoration of a place of worship, etc. On the other hand, the words refer to individuals and organizations, dioceses, congregations, the missions and all those entities that work for the good of the Church and society. The postage stamp issued for this occasion features the portraits of the two popes central to this celebration: Pius XII, who founded the institution, and Pope Francis, who renewed its charter. The two popes are facing the right to show the care and concern that the Successor of Peter has for the future of this institution. Also depicted is the Tower of Nicholas V, the historic headquarters of the Institute.

Face Value - € 1.20
Format - 41 x 30,5 mm
Perforation - 13,66 x 13,77
Sheet Size - 106 x 177mm
Sheet Of - 10 stamps
Printing Process - Offset 4 colors
Printer - Printex (Malta)
Set Price - Euro 1.20
Artist - Patrizio Daniele
Mintange - 50,000 complete series

“Concordia res parvae crescunt” (in harmony small things grow). This ancient quote of Sallust is the inspiration for the bilateral relations between Latvia and the Holy See, whose centenary is being celebrated this year by Vatican philately in a joint issue with the Latvian Post Office. The saying, featured on the front of the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, lends itself for the occasion to a dual understanding: “in harmony small states grow.” On 19 November 1918, the day after Latvia’s proclamation of independence, the Prime Minister of Foreign Affairs, Z.A. Meierovics, addressed His Holiness’ then Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, regarding the Holy See’s recognition of Latvia’s provisional government. The commemorative stamp for this anniversary features the logo created by Latvijas Pasts for the celebrations tied to the event where the Latvian and Vatican flags merge to form the number 100, a graphic and visual reminder of the centennial, but also of the union and concord that bind the two states.

Face Value - € 3.00
Format - 46 x 34 mm
Perforation - 13 ¼ x 13 ½
Sheet Size - 114 x 164 mm
Sheet Of - 10 stamps
Printing Process - Offset 4 colors
Printer - Cartor (France)
Set Price - Euro 1.25
Mintange - 45,000 complete series
Joint issue: Vatican City - Latvia

Albino Luciani’s reputation of holiness spread very early on with many praying to him and requesting the opening of his cause for beatification. The process has now come to a conclusion, thanks to the recognition of a miracle that took place in Brazil on 23 July 2011 when a little girl dying of a very serious illness was healed through his intercession. Pope Francis declared him venerable in November 2017 and will now beatify him on 4 September 2022. Albino Luciani is universally remembered as “the smiling pope”, a characteristic that associated humility, also expressed by the motto Humilitas, with the true impact of his magisterium founded on simplicity and spontaneity of language, mercy, closeness to the people, concern for the neediest people and a renewed missionary spirit. His was a short pontificate, but offering an eternal legacy. He held only four general audiences that through their fulfillment seem to have encapsulated a sense of his entire magisterium.

Face Value - € 1.25
Format - 30,5 x 41 mm
Perforation - 13,77 x 13,66
Sheet Size - 114 x 164 mm
Sheet Of - 10 stamps

Printing Process Offset 4 colors Printer Cartor (France) Set Price Euro 1.25 Mintange 45,000 complete series

Exactly 400 years have gone by since the Embassy of Spain to the Holy See established its premises in the Palace of Spain, located at Rome’s Piazza di Spagna square, becoming the oldest permanent diplomatic headquarters. The history of the Embassy to the Holy See is also the history of diplomatic relations between Spain and the Papal States. The stamp issued for the occasion by Vatican City’s Postal and Philatelic Service comes in a miniature sheet of five stamps, featuring a painting of the impressive Palace by Giovanni Paolo Pannini made in 1727, displayed in Apsley House in London. The official logo designed by the Embassy for the anniversary-related celebrations appears next to the title of the stamp issue.

Face Value - € 1.20
Format - 30 x 40 mm
Perforation - 11 ½
Mini-Sheet Size - 176 x 106 mm
Mini Sheet - 5 stamps
Printing Process - Offset 4 colors
Printer - Bpost (Belgio)
Set Price - Euro 1.20
Mintange - 27,500 mini sheets

The apostolic nunciature in Belarus was established on 11 November 1992 with Pope John Paul II’s apostolic brief Quantam tandem following the Agreement between the Holy See and the Republic of Belarus concerning diplomatic relations between the two parties, signed on that same date in Minsk in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 18 April 1961. The same agreement also provided for the establishment of the embassy of the Republic of Belarus to the Holy See by the Republic of Belarus itself. The life of the Church in Belarus and the peaceful coexistence between the country’s Catholic and Orthodox communities have always been the focus of talks and diplomatic meetings over these years. In the stamp designed by Marco Ventura, the national coat of arms of Vatican City State and the Republic of Belarus are depicted on a book, symbolizing the ratified agreement.

Face Value - € 1.25
Format - 40 x 30 mm
Perforation - 13 x 13 ¼
Sheet Size - 104 x 174 mm
Sheet Of - 10 stamps
Printing Process - Offset 4 colors
Printer - Cartor (France)
Set Price - Euro 1.25
Mintange - 44,000 complete series

The Vatican celebrates the 30th anniversary of the resumption of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Mexico with a joint stamp issue between the Vatican and Mexico. On 21 September 1992 a joint note from Mexico’s Secretariat of Foreign Affairs and the Holy See’s Secretariat of State announced the reconciliation that had taken place, made possible through the realization of the central and foundational role that the religious dimension carries in the life of the Mexican nation. Mexico has experienced the paradox of being a country of strong religious traditions and convictions, but having one of the most anticlerical constitutions in modern history. The stamp produced for the anniversary is designed by Patrizio Daniele and depicts the national coat of arms of the two states united in this important project with the respective national colours appearing in the background.

Face Value - € 2.40
Format - 30 x 40 mm
Perforation - 13 ¼ x 13
Sheet Size - 174 x 104 mm
Sheet Of - 10 stamps
Printing Process - Offset 4 colors
Printer - Cartor (France)
Set Price - Euro 2.40
Artist - Patrizio Daniele
Mintage - 37,000 complete series

The postage stamp issue dedicated to the ninth centenary of the foundation of the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Piacenza offers Vatican philately an opportunity to promote a project of the Diocese of Piacenza-Bobbio given to the non-profit association “La Ricerca,” which has engaged the help of guests at Don Venturini House, a home for people living with HIV. “They have broken up into different parts the Cathedral of Piacenza and then remade it with the colors reflecting their sentiments.” In this way a giant poster of the facade of Piacenza’s Cathedral was divided into 18 pieces that were given to the artist apprentices to reinterpret them by painting each with their own sensitivity. A workshop followed, culminating in the assemblage of the small paintings that in their uniqueness brought alive with warmth and life the appearance of the Cathedral’s ancient facade. The panel is reproduced on the Vatican stamp celebrating this anniversary and is also the symbol that accompanied the event celebrations in the Piacenza-Bobbio area throughout 2022.

Face Value - € 1.20
Format - 30 x 40 mm
Perforation - 13 ¼ x 13
Sheet Size - 174 x 104 mm
Sheet Of - 10 stamps
Printing Process - Offset 4 colors
Printer - Cartor (France)
Set Price - Euro 1.20
Mintange - 40,000 complete series

The stamps for the Pontificate of Pope Francis 2022 issue are part of the activities and initiatives for the Year of the Family, called by Pope Francis on 19 March 2021 on the occasion of the Solemnity of Saint Joseph and the fifth anniversary of the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia. Accordingly, this year's postage stamp issue is dedicated to the main relationships that are experienced in the family: marriage, for the €1.10 value that reproduces a photo from 14 September 2014 when Pope Francis celebrated in Saint Peter's Basilica the group wedding of twenty young couples; the family, for the €1.15 value, which depicts the Pope while baptizing a child on the day of the Baptism of the Lord; children, for the €2.40 value which represents the Pope while embracing a child; finally, grandparents, for the €3.00 value featuring the Pope showing affection to an elderly lady during a general audience. The stamp series aims to represent the love, care and tenderness that Pope Francis has for all families, especially for the most fragile members.

Face Values - € 1.10 - € 1.15 - € 2.40 - € 3.00
Format - 40 x 30 mm
Perforation - 11 ½ mm
Sheet Size - 7.65
Sheet Of - 10 stamps
Printing Process - Offset 4 colors
Printer - Bpost (Belgium)
Set Price - Euro 7.65
Mintange - 50,000 complete series

The Easter of Resurrection 2022 issue also features the theme from the Amoris Laetitia Family Year, in which Pope Francis affirmed that the married life of spouses is a full participation in the Paschal Mystery of Christ and His Resurrection. The Easter stamp with a face value of € 1.15, designed by the Spanish painter Raul Berzosa, takes inspiration from the Byzantine icon of the descent to the underworld in which Christ is depicted taking by the hand the progenitors of humanity, Adam and Eve. The artist reproduces the Risen Christ holding the hands of two spouses surrounded by the flag of the Resurrection, to signify that they also participate in the Paschal Mystery. In the painting, the face of the Risen Christ is turned towards the bride, to recall that the announcement of the Resurrection was entrusted precisely to a woman, Mary Magdalene, whom for this reason Pope Francis has honoured with the title of Apostle of the Apostles.

Face Value -€ 1.15
Format - 30.5 x 41 mm
Perforation - 13,77 x 13,66
Sheet Size - 177 x 106 mm
Sheet Of - 10 stamps
Printing Process - Offset 4 colors
Printer - Printex (Malta)
Set Price - Euro 1.15
Artist - Raúl Berzosa
Mintange - 45,000 complete series

On 27 March 2020 in a deserted, rain-soaked Saint Peter's Square, Pope Francis entrusted the world scourged by the pandemic to Mary's protection. These are images that touched everyone's heart and will likely never be forgotten. Two years on, Vatican philately wishes to remember that day of prayer and hope. The miniature sheet depicts the Holy Father as he walks alone up the steps leading to Saint Peter's Basilica. Providing the Holy Father with strength, consolation and hope were the Crucifix of San Marcello al Corso, carried in procession over the centuries by Romans invoking an end to epidemics, and the Salus Populi Romani, the ancient Marian icon that has always protected the Eternal City. Beyond the Piazza, in the solitude of forced isolation, the whole world watched the event, praying with the Bishop of Rome.

Face Value - € 3.00
Format - 38 x 52 mm
Perforation - 11 ½ mm
Printer - Bpost (Belgium)
Price Of The Souvenir Sheet- Euro 3.00
Mintange - 35,000 souvenir sheets
Format - 129.5 x 93.5 mm

Vatican philately commemorates Pope Adrian VI on the fifth centenary of his election to the papacy. Adriaen Florisz Boeyens was the last non-Italian pope until the election of John Paul II and the last pope from the Holy Roman Empire, as well as the only one of Dutch origin. He died only a year after his election to the papacy. The brevity of his pontificate did not allow him to be more effective in his peacemaking efforts. Most of the official documents of Adrian VI disappeared shortly after his death. The stamp has a value of € 2.00 and reproduces a painting of the Pope with the tiara enclosed in an oval, painted in oil on canvas. An anonymous artist created the work between 1522 and 1599, basing it on a commemorative medal in which the Pope appears portrayed in the same manner. The painting is owned by the Rijksmuseum Centraal and has been on loan since 1993 to the Residence of the Ambassador of the Netherlands to the Holy See.

Face Value - € 2.00
Format - 30 x 40 mm
Perforation - 11 ½ mm
Sheet Size - 170 x 100 mm
Sheet Of - 10 stamps
Printing Process - 5 colour (CMYK + gold) offset
Printer - Bpost (Belgium)
Set Price - Euro 2.00
Mintange - 50,000 complete series

23 February 2022 will mark the second centenary of the birth of Giovanni Battista de Rossi (1822-1894), unanimously considered one of the "founding fathers" of the science of Christian archaeology. He was Scriptor and then in charge of the Vatican Apostolic Library, first secretary of the Commission of Sacred Archaeology, established by Pius IX in 1852. Founder and director of the first specialized journal in the field, the "Bullettino di Archeologia Cristiana", he began the publication and reviewed all the Christian inscriptions of Rome (prior to the seventh century). He was the author of various scientific publications and important books on underground Christian Rome, and an in-depth study of the main Roman catacombs that he wrote following important discoveries he himself made. The Vatican wishes to celebrate this important anniversary with a commemorative stamp with a face value of € 2.50, designed by Stefano Morri, in which the figure of Giovanni Battista de Rossi is reproduced in the foreground against the background of the excavation of the Hypogeum of the Flavi in Domitilla.

Face Value - € 2.50
Format - 41 x 30.5 mm
Perforation - 13.66 x 13.77
Sheet Size - 170 x 100 mm
Sheet Of - 10 stamps
Printing Process - Offset 4 colors
Printer - Printex (Malta)
Set Price - Euro 2.50
Artist - Stefano Morri
Mintange - 46,000 complete series

The Vatican takes up the call to return to caring for the environment issued by the United Nations General Assembly, which has declared the years 2021 to 2030 the United Nations Decade for Ecosystem Restoration. Both a collector’s item or a stamp used for postage, the Vatican stamp dedicated to restoring ecosystems bears a value of €7.00 and gives witness to a personal commitment for protecting the environment. In the production of these 45,000 Vatican stamps, 3.9 million elements of polyester yarn was used, obtained through the recycling of 4,000 plastic bottles, 600 ml in capacity. This equals 75 meters of yarn per stamp and eight stamps produced from each bottle. As a way to begin this series of postage stamps tied to environmental issues, we wished to start with an element that is as simple as it is basic to the life cycle; that is, the seed, which grows in the earth, and thanks to the warmth of the sun is able to mature, just as our environmental and ecological consciousness must evolve.

Face Value - € 7.00
Format - 55 x 55 mm
Printing Process - Offset 3 colors
Printer - Hämmerle & Vogel (Austria)
Set Price - Euro 7.00
Mintange - 45,000 complete series

The theme for the “Europa 2022” postage stamp series is Stories & Myths. History is inextricably intertwined with myth in the image chosen for the Vatican issue that consists of a miniature sheet and a series of two stamps. The miniature sheet reproduces the entire fresco of a lunette in the Sistine Halls of the Vatican Museums, painted between 1588 and 1590 by C. Nebbia and G. Guerra. They depict the transport of the Egyptian obelisk that stood on the middle wall of Caligula's circus over to St. Peter's Square, where Pope Sixtus V wanted to move it. The stamps instead reproduce two details of it. The Pope entrusted architect Domenico Fontana with the task of removing the obelisk from its original location and placing it in St. Peter's Square and then raising it on a pedestal.

Face Values - € 0.10 - € 0.30
Format - 30 x 40 mm
Perforation - 13 x 13.25
Sheet Size - 104 x 174 mm
Sheet Of - 10 stamps
Printing Process - Offset 4 colors
Printer - Cartor (France)
Mintange - 60,000 complete series

"Family love: a vocation and a path to holiness" is the theme of the X World Meeting of Families, the concluding event of the Amoris Laetitia Family Year. Presented by the Holy Father himself, the celebration will take place from 22 to 26 June 2022 with the aim of nourishing reflection, dialogue and pastoral practice, while also providing courage, encouragement and help to families in their spiritual and concrete everyday lives. In this time of uncertainty and fear, the meeting aims to inspire hope and to initiate rebirth. It will take place in an unprecedented and multicentric form, with local initiatives in dioceses around the world, similar to those that will take place simultaneously in Rome. The Vatican miniature sheet dedicated to the celebration features the Wedding at Cana in Galilee with a symbolic work of this event painted by Jesuit Father Marko Ivan Rupn

Face Value - € 1.15
Format - 40 x 46,5 mm
Perforation - 13 x 13.25
Printing Process - Offset 4 colors
Printer - Cartor (France)
Artist - P. Marko Ivan Rupnik
Price - Euro 1.15
Mintange - 25,000 souvenir sheets
Format - 100 x 100 mm

Vatican philately pays tribute to the 100 years of service of the “Santa Marta” Pediatric Dispensary, established on 8 May 1922 with the blessing of Pope Pius XI and entrusted to the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul who work at Santa Marta in the Vatican. The service involves the collaboration of doctors volunteering from the Bambino Gesù Hospital, the Saints Peter and Paul Association, private individuals and other Roman health facilities. Thanks to the ongoing and appreciated commitment of lay volunteers, the Dispensary offers a place for listening, health and psychological care, support for families of all backgrounds, just as Fratelli Tutti teaches. The postage stamp is based on a design by artist Daniela Fusco, presented in a miniature sheet of six, showing the Holy Father together with children as a way to give witness to the service of assistance provided by the Dispensary, represented by the image of a Sister belonging to the Daughters of Charity.

Face Value - € 1.20
Format - 30 x 40 mm
Perforation - 11 ½
Mini-Sheet Size - 176 x 106 mm
Mini Sheet - 6 stamps
Printing Process - Offset 4 colors
Printer - Bpost (Belgio)
Price Of The Mini-Sheet - Euro 7.20
Artist - Daniela Fusco
Mintange - 23,500 mini sheets

The Vatican is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Saint Luigi Orione with a joint stamp issue with Italy, Argentina, and the Sovereign Order of Malta. The image chosen for the philatelic issue is a painting by Spanish painter Raúl Berzosa that depicts through symbols the birth and charisma of the Saint from Tortona. The rose, the first symbol, reminds us of a sign the Virgin Mary wished to give to his birthplace, Pontecurone, the month before his birth, which took place on 23 June 1872. As a sign of her devotion, the mother of the future Saint brought and placed a rose before the image of Our Lady of the Rosary, but the rose did not wilt with the passing of the days, unlike the flowers brought by others. On the other side, a double symbol is featured, one represented by Christ holding with his left hand the Vatican Basilica close to his heart, while from his right hand - a symbol of God's action - the tears and blood of the poor issue forth that kindled the sacred fire of charity in the Saint's life and works.

Face Value - € 2.40
Format - 40 x 48 mm
Perforation - 13 x 13.25
Printing Process - Offset 5 colors
Printer - Cartor (France)
Artist - Raúl Berzosa
Mintange - 44,000 mini sheets

Details on this issue is not yet available.

We celebrate this year the third centenary of the proclamation as Doctor of the Church of Saint Isidore of Seville, a Spanish bishop and theologian who lived between 560 and 636. Acclaimed with the title Doctor Egregius as early as a few years after his death by virtue of his profound wisdom, adding to his charity and humility, Innocent XIII in 1722 conferred the authoritative title of Doctor Ecclesiae Universalis. To the genius of Saint Isidore we owe the first authentic Encyclopedia, known as the “Etymologiae,” which encompassed all knowledge of the time in twenty books. The work gained extraordinary popularity throughout the Middle Ages, thanks to its simple and effective presentation, soon becoming a real source of knowledge for anyone wishing to draw knowledge from it. The Vatican stamp dedicated to the anniversary features an oil-on-canvas painting depicting the Saint, a work by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo in 1655 and found at the Cathedral of Seville.

Face Value - € 1.25
Format - 30 x 40 mm
Perforation - 13 ¼ x 13
Sheet Size - 174 x 104 mm
Sheet Of - 10 stamps
Printing Process - Offset 4 colors
Printer - Cartor (France)
Set Price - Euro 1.25
Mintange - 80,000 complete series

Pope Francis made three international apostolic journeys in 2021, to Iraq, Budapest and Slovakia, Cyprus and Greece, celebrated in the Vatican miniature sheet issued for the occasion.The bottom of the miniature sheet features the Pope and the Ziggurat of the Plain of Ur, a place of great symbolic significance for its reference to the figure of Abraham and thus to the beginnings of God’s covenant with him, and where the inter-religious meeting took place. In the centre is a reminder of the visit made by the Holy Father to the “Reception and Identification Centre” in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, represented by his embrace with a refugee leaning out from a boat that brought him to safety. Above the refugee lies the body of the dead Christ, held by his Mother of Sorrows, venerated in Šaštín, Slovakia, as Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows.

Face Value - € 1.25
Format - 32 x 48 mm
Perforation - 11 ½
Printing Process - Offset 4 colors
Printer - Bpost (Belgio)
Set Price - Euro 1.25
Artist - Orietta Rossi
Mintange - 24,000 Souvenir sheet
Format - 96 x 138 mm

The miniature sheet dedicated to a symbolic pilgrimage around the world in preparation for the 2025 Jubilee is now in its second issue and focuses on Asia. In the twentieth year of his pontificate, on 6 November 1999 in New Delhi, India, St. John Paul II dedicated a Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation to this continent. The papal document was dedicated to Jesus Christ, the Saviour, and His Mission of Love and Service in Asia. The symbolic pilgrimage is growing in number: the people of Oceania are now joined by the people of the Asian continent. With this miniature sheet as in the previous one, a people walking to meet Christ is represented with their robes decorated with oriental embroidery. A rickshaw, a traditional means of transport in Asia, has been added to the pilgrims’ silhouettes. The postage stamp depicts the Asian continent flanked by the image of Our Lady of Sheshan in China, a shrine built by the Jesuits in 1863 in Sheshan, the most important Catholic shrine in China and one of the main pilgrimage sites in Asia.

Face Value - € 3.00
Format - 46 x 34 mm
Perforation - 14 ½ x 14 ¼
Printing Process - Offset 4 colors
Printer - Cartor (France)
Price of the Souvenir Sheet - Euro 3.00 Artist - Patrizio Daniele
Mintange - 25,000 Souvenir sheet
Format -136 x 88 mm

The series celebrating the Nativity of the Lord 2022 features work by Francesco Canale, a physically challenged painter born without limbs. At the age of six he received a scholarship and joined the international Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists of the World (VDMFK), which since 1956 has promoted and supported differently-abled art as a culture of integration, solidarity, and respect for diversity. Pope Francis met with members of the Italian Autism Foundation on 1 April 2022 and called every form of disability “a challenge and an opportunity to build together a more inclusive and civil society, where family members, teachers and associations such as yours are not abandoned, but are supported”. The two stamps in the series depict respectively the angel’s announcement to the young shepherd in Bethlehem, and the shepherd’s adoration of the baby Jesus.

Face Values - € 1.20 - € 1.25
Format - 30.5 x 41 mm
Perforation - 13.77 x 13.66
Sheet Size - 177 x 107 mm
Sheet Of - 10 stamps
Printing Process - offset 4 colors
Printer - Printex (Malta)
Set Price - Euro 2.45
Artist - Francesco Canale
Mintange - 55,000 complete series

The issue of a commemorative postage stamp of Father Paolo Manna, whose 150th birthday falls this year, is intended to be both a sign of gratitude for the work carried out by the confreres of the Pontifical Institute for the Foreign Missions serving throughout the world, as well as an encouragement for all people of good will to persevere in their commitment of protecting and promoting human and Christian values that make humanity more united and fraternal. Father Manna passionately dedicated his entire life to the missions, founding the Pontifical Missionary Union of the Clergy. John Paul II beatified him on 4 November 2001. Summing up his ministry, Fr. Manna’s main motto was “All the Church for all the World!” implying that missionary work should be entrusted not only to missionaries but to the whole People of God.

Face Value - € 1.20
Format - 40 x 30 mm
Perforation - 13 x 13 ¼
Sheet Size - 104 x 174mm
Sheet Of - 10 stamps
Printing Process - Offset 4 colors
Printer - Cartor (France)
Set Price - Euro 1.20
Mintange - 40,000 complete series

In 2022 the Vatican celebrates the 1900th anniversary of the Martyrdom of Saint Marcian, the first bishop of Tortona, who suffered martyrdom in 122 during the persecution of Emperor Hadrian. According to tradition, the figure of Saint Marcian is tied on the one hand to the first disciples of Jesus, and on the other hand to the very first evangelizers of the Po Valley. He came from a pagan family and was converted by the Apostle Saint Barnabas, a companion of Saint Paul on his missionary journeys. He would have been confirmed then in the Christian faith by Saint Syrus, the famous first Bishop of Pavia, and one of the most active sowers of the truth in the lands of northern Italy. In 1875 Baron Guidobono Cavalchini Garofoli had a new chapel built on the site of Marcian's martyrdom for the celebrations marking the 1800 years since the beginning of the episcopate of the holy martyr. The stamp depicts a portion of polychrome stained-glass window representing the beheading of the Saint, placed in the apse of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Guard in Tortona, built by Saint Luigi Orione between 1926 and 1931.

Face Value - € 1.10
Format - 30.5 x 41 mm
Perforation - 13.77 x 13.66
Sheet Size - 177 x 106 mm
Sheet Of - 10 stamps
Printing Process - Offset 4 colors
Printer - Printex (Malta)
Set Price - Euro 1.10
Mintange - 40,000 complete series

On 12 March 1622 in Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, Gregory XV canonized five new Saints: Isidore, a farmer from Madrid devoted to charity and prayer, Carmelite Sister Teresa of Avila, the founder of the Philip Neri Oratory, the founder of the Society of Jesus Ignatius of Loyola and Jesuit Father Francis Xavier. Originally, the ceremony was to concern Isidore alone, but since in January 1622 the process for the canonization of the other four blesseds was almost concluded, the Congregation of Rites decided to celebrate a "multiple" canonization, the first in the history of the Congregation established in 1588. The canonization ceremony marked a historic event, given the notoriety of the Saints. Vatican philately will dedicate its Aerogramme 2022 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of this group canonization.The illustration of the aerogramme reproduces the detail of a painting commissioned by notary Antonio Antonacci about ten years after the canonization, a work by an unknown artist depicting the five Saints at the bottom of the painting. The work is preserved at the church of the Convent of Santa Maria di Loreto in Toro. Reproduced in the value imprint of the aerogramme is a side of the medal coined for the event, which characterized the second year of Gregory XV's pontificate.

Face Value - € 2.40
Printer - Joh. Enschedë (Netherlands)
Price Of The Aerogramme - Euro 2.40
Mintange - 10,000
Format - 189 x 293 mm (unfolded)

The postcard series issued this year by the Postal and Philatelic Service focuses on the bicentenary celebration of Antonio Canova’s death by offering a series of images that exalt not only his extraordinary sculptural art but also the important work he did as Inspector General of Antiquities and Fine Arts of the Papal States. The postcard cover depicts the fresco by Francesco Hayez representing the allegory for the return to Rome of works stolen from the Roman States. The work decorates the XXI wall of the Chiaramonti Museum that Pope Pius VII Chiaramonti wished to establish in 1806, set up and arranged by Canova. The postcards depict respectively: the bust of Pius VII made by Antonio Canova; a view of the hall of the Octagonal Courtyard with Canova’s sculptures of Perseus Triumphant and the two boxers Creugas and Damoxenos; the handwritten document signed by Antonio Canova, Inspector General, with the “Days when the Museum will be closed,” and finally a panoramic view of the Museum’s New Wing, built specifically to display the works returned from France. The value imprint depicts a portrait of Antonio Canova by painter Maria Luigia Giuli Boccolini.

Number Of Postcards - 4
Postcards' Values - € 1.20 - € 1.25 - € 2.40 - € 3.10
Postcard Format - 105 x 150 mm
Image Format - 30 x 40 mm
Printer - Tipografia Vaticana
Set Price - Euro 7.95
Mintange - 7,000 sets

The Philatelic Envelope 2022 also reflects the theme of the Amoris Laetitia Family Year and celebrates the importance of family unity and love. "It is good to reflect on the fact that the Son of God wanted to be in need of the warmth of a family, like all children...In imitation of the Holy Family, we are called to rediscover the educational value of the family unit: it requires being founded on the love that always regenerates relationships, opening up horizons of hope" (Pope Francis, Angelus, 27 December 2020). The image of the Pope blessing a family is the work of artist Vitaliy Shtanko. Reproduced in the value imprint is a tapestry by Camilian Demetrescu (1924-2012), dedicated to Marriage, one of nine tapestries called "Hierofanie" donated to Benedict XVI on 2 January 2018 and currently on display in the Gallery of the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican.

Face Value - € 3.00
Printing Process - Offset 4 colors
Printer - Tipografia Vaticana
Artist - Vitaliy Shtanko
Mintange - 12,000
Format - 215 x 105 mm