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Birthday of
Pope Saint Paul VI

James C. Hamilton


Pope Paul VI: 80th Birthday
Scott 630-631 (1978)

Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini was born September 26, 1897 and died on August 6, 1978. He was elected as pope on June 21, 1963, and took the name Paul VI, succeeding Pope John XXIII.

The top two stamps above were issued by Vatican City to celebrate Pope Paul VI's 80th birthday, and followed the precedent set in 1961 when the Vatican Post Office issued the first set of stamps to commemorate the birthday of a reigning pope, that being John XXIII. That tradition has continued for all popes who have reached that age during their pontificates.

Pope Paul VI has been extensively covered in the Daily Emails, and a biography was included on his feast day of May 29 (which can be accessed in the references below).

Instead of repeating a biographical summary for his birthday, the following comments were prepared by VPS member Peter Caracci, focusing on the Vatican City stamps issued in 1978 and the sculpture by Pericle Fazzini in the Pope Paul VI Audience Hall. The stamps shown above depict the images of the faces of Jesus (Scott 630) and Pope Paul VI (Scott 631), with that stamp also featuring Paul VI’s coat of arms.
“This stamp (Scott 630) shows the face of Christ from the statue, “The Resurrection,” which was sculptured by Pericle Fazzini (1913-1987). “Resurrection” is a monumental statue that dominates the stage of the Pope Paul VI Audience Hall where a pope’s general audiences are held when an outside venue is not comfortable. The statue depicts Jesus rising from a nuclear bomb crater. “Resurrection’ is molded in red bronze, and yellow brass. It measures 66 feet by 23 feet by 10 feet.

“Suddenly there came to me the idea of Christ preaching peace for 2,000 years, and the place where He prayed for the last time: the olive grove of Gethsemane” said Mr. Fazzini in a book about the work. “I had the idea of depicting Christ as if He were rising again from the explosion of this large olive grove peaceful site of His last prayers. Christ rises from this crater torn open by a nuclear bomb; an atrocious explosion, a vortex of violence and energy.” One of the great engravers of the 20th century, Lino Bianchi Barreviera produced these stamps.

“Pope Paul VI was born in 1897 and died in 1978 and served as pope from 1963 to 1978. Throughout his pontificate, the tension between papal primacy and the collegiality of the episcopacy was a source of conflict. Those who knew him best, however, describe him as a brilliant man, deeply spiritual, humble, reserved, and gentle, a man of ‘infinite courtesy.” The controversies over the encyclicals Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life) which forbid artificial method of birth control and Sacerdotalis Caelibatus (On the Celibacy of the Priest) which stated that priests should not marry, were objected to by many in the church. Scott 631 shows the soberness of a Pope whose teachings were not accepted, nor understood by the Church faithful.” – Peter Caracci
In addition to the stamps issued in 1978, Vatican City issued a single stamp with the entire image of the Resurrection sculpture as its Easter release for 2013:


Sculpture of Risen Christ by Fazzini
Easter 2013
Scott 1516 (2013)


REFERENCES:
  • Mor, Ferdinando, Fazzini and The Resurrection, 1999 (text also in Italian and French)
  • Anonymous, Vatican Notes, Volume 27, Number 2, pp. 4-6, 1978, Pope Paul VI - His Family, His Early Youth, His Career
  • Vatican Philatelic Society, Daily Email, May 29, Feast of Pope Saint Paul VI
  • Vatican Philatelic Society website, www.vaticanstamps.org, Stamp Database Search