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<img height='275' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/375.jpg'>
<img height='275' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/376.jpg'>
<img height='275' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/377.jpg'> 
Pope Paul VI: Trip to the Holy Land Scott 375-377 (1964)</center>
 
The travels of modern popes, both within Italy and outside the confines of the Vatican and the Italian peninsula, have provided copious amounts of material from the Vatican Post Office. This article provides a brief summary of this aspect of Vatican City philately.
 
Starting with the Pilgrim Pope, Pope Paul VI, hundreds of stamps and minisheets have been issued to commemorate and memorialize the trips of the popes literally around the world. The first stamps, issued in 1964 and shown above, memorialize the trip of Pope Paul VI to the Holy Land. From there, each subsequent pope (with the exception of Pope John Paul I, who did not travel during his extremely short pontificate), has had his trips documented on Vatican City stamps. Not every papal trip appears on a stamp, but there are certainly plenty of stamps of the popes' travels. Here are some examples:
 
Pope Paul VI—his travels covered nine trips to 20 countries and territories.
 
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<img height='275' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/C68.jpg'> Pope John Paul II: Trip to Poland Scott C68 (1980)</center>
 
Pope John Paul II—the most traveled pope in history, he made a total of 104 trips to an astounding 129 countries and territories. His momentous return to Poland in 1979 is commemorated above (Scott C68). Stamps depicting his travels dominated the last mail stamps issued by Vatican City from 1980 to 1992.
 
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<img height='275' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/1331.jpg'> Pope Benedict XVI: Trip to the Cologne, German Scott 1331 (2006)</center>
 
Pope Benedict XVI—although not as well-traveled as Pope John Paul II, Benedict racked up his fair share of frequent-flyer miles. His first trip as Pope, to World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany, in 2005 (Scott 1331), is shown above. He made 25 trips outside of Italy to 29 territories and countries during his pontificate.
 
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<img height='275' src='http://vaticanstamps.org/VPS/images/296/1579.jpg'> Pope Francis: Trip to Rio de Janiero, Brazil Scott 1579 (2014)</center>
 
Pope Francis—having succeeded the retired Pope Benedict in 2013, Francis’s first trip was a return to South America to the country of Brazil in July of 2013, as shown above (Scott 1579). To date, Pope Francis has made a total of 46 trips to 68 countries and territories. His travels have been curtailed over the past five years of his pontificate, first due to the COVID pandemic (he made no trips outside of Italy in 2020) and now due to progressive ill health. However, he has two foreign trips scheduled in September of 2024: first to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore (September 2 to September 13), and then to Luxembourg and Belgium (September 26 to September 29).
 
In addition to all the stamps issued that are tied to the travels of the popes over the last sixty years, the Vatican collector can find voluminous material in the form of first day covers, event covers, post cards and associated postal history to create an expansive subsection to one’s collection.
 
REFERENCES: 
<li>Vatican Philatelic Society website, www.vaticanstamps.org, Stamp Database Search 
<li>Wikipedia, <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pastoral_visits_of_Pope_Paul_VI'>List of Pastoral Visits of Pope Paul VI</a> 
<li>Wikipedia, <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pastoral_visits_of_Pope_John_Paul_II'>List of Pastoral Visits of Pope John Paul II</a> 
<li>Wikipedia, <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pastoral_visits_of_Pope_Benedict_XVI'>List of Pastoral Visits of Pope Benedict XVI</a> 
<li>Wikipedia, <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pastoral_visits_of_Pope_Francis'>List of Pastoral Visits of Pope Francis</a>

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