Vatican · Year for Priests

Issue date12 Oct 2010

Total mintage111,000

EU maximum115,000

Editions2

Edge lettering2 ★ × 6, alternately upright/inverted

InscriptionCITTA' DEL VATICANO / ANNO SACERDOTALE / 2010 / R / VEROI

DesignerGuido Veroi (Ettore Lorenzo Frapiccini)

mintInstituto Poligrafico e Zecca Dello Stato, Roma

Issue occasion

The commemorative coin is dedicated to the Year for Priests. The design shows a shepherd wresting a lamb from a lion’s jaws, surrounded by the inscriptions “CITTA' DEL VATICANO” and “ANNO SACERDOTALE”. The year “2010” and the mint mark “R” are shown on the left, and the artist’s name “VEROI” on the right.

The design

The inner part of the coin depicts a shepherd wresting a lamb from a lion’s mouth. Around the motif, the issuing country “CITTA' DEL VATICANO” is engraved in the upper part and the issuing occasion “ANNO SACERDOTALE” in the lower part. The year “2010” is positioned to the left of the motif, the mintmark “R” below it, and the artist’s name “VEROI” to the right.

The twelve stars of the European flag are depicted on the outer ring of the coin.

Background on the topic

The Year for Priests (Priesterjahr) was a thematic year of the Catholic Church proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI. It began on 19 June 2009, the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, and ended on 11 June 2010. It was intended to focus on the spiritual renewal of priests, their duties in pastoral care and liturgy, and their relationship with the communities. The motto was “Christ’s Faithfulness, the Priest’s Faithfulness”.

The occasion was the 150th anniversary of the death of the French parish priest Jean-Marie Vianney. The clergyman, born in 1786 and deceased in 1859, worked in Ars-sur-Formans near Lyon. He became known above all as a pastor and confessor. He was canonized in 1925 and has been regarded as the patron saint of parish priests since 1929. During the thematic year, his understanding of the priestly office served as a point of reference for reflections on the priestly vocation. Thus, the Year for Priests did not commemorate the introduction of the priesthood or a single historical event, but combined an anniversary with an internal ecclesiastical focus.

The shepherd figure depicted on the coin does not represent a specific historical person. It draws on biblical imagery. In the First Book of Samuel, the young David reports that, as a shepherd, he saved his father’s sheep from the jaws of lions and bears. At the same time, the “good shepherd” is one of the central images of the New Testament: in the Gospel of John, Jesus describes himself as the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. In Church tradition, this image was transferred to the caring and protective role of clergy. The term “pastoral” is also derived from this.

The thematic year also coincided with a period in which cases of sexual abuse by clergy and their institutional handling became increasingly known to the public. At the closing ceremony, Benedict XVI explicitly spoke of the sins of priests and the necessary purification of the Church. The coin issue thus took up a central focus of the Vatican Church Year, whose concerns had gained additional relevance as a result of this crisis.