Home
Over the years the Vatican Post Office has issued over 1,700 different stamps. Reviewing all Vatican Post Office issues to date (including stationary, postcards, and aerograms), it would be interesting to determine if there are enough stamps with the subjects, directly or indirectly, related to the Lenten Station Churches of Rome to form a subset of stamps that could be called "Vatican Lenten Stamps". For purposes of this question, the "Lenten Station Churches of Rome" is defined to be the set of churches in the city of Rome Italy that are appointed for special morning and evening liturgical celebrations during the Church season of Lent. The century-old custom of visiting this set of churches(in Rome) and reciting prayers during the Lenten season was first established by Pope Gregory the Great in the year 590. Over time tradition grew up so that the Holy Father, the Pope, would usually visit various churches in each part of the city of Rome and celebrate Mass with the congregation, The visited church would then be referred to as the station church of the day. This practice continues today. It has become a tradition in the city of Rome. Over the next several weeks, we will be reviewing the list of each of the Lenten Station Churches of Rome and show you the subjected related stamps we found. You can somewhat participate in this quest by checking our list daily. Just click on the button that will be embedded into the VPS daily email distribution during this season of Lent. This project has been primarily driven by VPS member Dennis Oniszcak who spent a great deal of time researching each of the Station Churches and developing a relationship between church information to Vatican stamps. Make plans to visit the VPS website Page 2 every day during Lent and see the results of this very interesting study!  Pope St Gregory I Mategna Altarpiece From the Church of St. Zeno (Right Panel, 2nd Figure) 1328 (2006)  Pope St Gregory I Italy 2766 (2006) References • Frank J. Korn, "Lenten Station Churches" A Catholic's Guide To Rome Paulist Press, Copyright 2000, pages 181-182 |
