HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II
Coat of Arms

HOLY SEE
Coat of Arms

STATE OF VATICAN CITY
Flag, Coat of Arms and Seal

[Updated: 15.03.2006]

• Coat of Arms of His Holiness Benedictus XVI

• Coat of Arms of His Holiness John Paul II

• Flag of the State of Vatican City

• Coat of Arms of the Holy See and the State of Vatican City

• Seal of the State of Vatican City

Coat of Arms
of His Holiness Benedictus XVI

BENEDICTUS XVI

BISHOP OF ROME
VICAR OF JESUS CHRIST
Successor of the Prince of the Apostles
Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church
Primate of Italy
Metropolitan Archbishop of the Province of Rome
Sovereign of the State of Vatican City
Servant of the Servants of God

JOSEPH RATZINGER

Coat of Arms
of His Holiness John Paul II

PONTIFICIUM INSIGNE

TOTUS TUUS

IOANNIS PAULI II

KAROL WOJTYŁA

© Arturo Mari/L'Osservatore Romano

born in Wadowice on May 18^th 1920; ordained to the priesthood in Krakow on November 1^st 1946; elected to the Titular Church of Ombi on July 4^th 1958 and consecrated on September 28^th 1958; promoted to Kraków on January 13^th 1964; nominated and published Cardinal in the Concistory on June 26^th 1967.  Following in Rome: His election to the Pontificate on October 16^th 1978 and His ministry as the universal Pastor of the Church began on October 22^nd 1978.

^{* * *}

The first known papal coat of arms is the one for Innocent III (1198-1216).

The symbols of papal authority, which are the tiara (or triregnum) and the keys of St. Peter or supreme keys, "to bind and to unloose", one in gold and the other in silver, crossed and bound with a red cord, are located directly behind the Pontiff’s personal coat of arms.

^{* * *}

The coat of arms for Pope John Paul II is intended to be a homage to the central mystery of Christianity, that of Redemption. It mainly represents a cross, whose form however does not correspond to any of the usual heraldry models. The reason for the unusual shift of the vertical part of the cross is striking, if one considers the second object included in the Coat of Arms: the large and majestic capital M, which recalls the presence of the Madonna under the Cross and Her exceptional participation in Redemption. The Pontiff’s intense devotion to the Holy Virgin is manifested in this manner, as it is also expressed in the motto when he was Cardinal Wojtyla: TOTUS TUUS. One cannot forget that right in the territory of the ecclesiastical Province of Krakow one can find the famous Marian sanctuary of Czestochowa, where the Polish people have been nurturing their filial devotion to the Madonna for centuries.

[Text published in L’Osservatore Romano", 09.11.1978 - Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 1978-II, p. 989.]

Flag
of the State of Vatican City

Banner divided in yellow (towards the flagpole) and white,
 with the white part centered with the crossed keys
surmounted by the tiara.

History of the Flag of the State of Vatican City [Italian]

[Cf. Fundamental Law of the State of Vatican City dated 26.11.2000 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, Supplement, 01.02.2001, Attachment A.]

Coat of Arms
of the Holy See and
of the State of Vatican City

Crossed keys
surmounted by the tiara over a red field
(gules, two keys in saltire or and argent,
interlaced in the rings or, beneath a tiara argent, crowned or)

[Cf. Fundamental law of the State of Vatican City dated 26.11.2000 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, Supplement, 01.02.2001, Attachment B).]

The symbolism is drawn from the Gospel and is represented by the keys given to the Apostle Peter by Christ.

The insignia is red with the two keys crossed as the Cross of St. Andrew, one gold and one silver, with the cotter pointed upwards and towards the sides of the shield. Two cords hang from the grips of the keys, usually red or blue.

The shield is surmounted by the tiara or triregnum.

Two ribbons hang from the tiara, each with a patent cross.

Ordinarily the keys have the mechanical part placed up, facing to the right and the left and usually in the form of a cross, not for the mechanisms of a lock, but as a religious symbol. The grips vary according to artistic taste, from the Gothic to the Baroque.

Since the XIV Century, the two crossed keys have been the official insignia of the Holy See. The gold one, on the right, alludes to the power in the kingdom of the heavens, the silver one, on the left, indicates the spiritual authority of the papacy on earth. The mechanisms are turned up towards the heaven and the grips turned down, in other words into the hands of the Vicar of Christ. The cord with the bows that unites the grips alludes to the bond between the two powers.

Seal
of the State of Vatican City

Round: central field with the crossed keys
and surmounted by the tiara, framed by four concentric circles
with a pearled external one, two by two.
Enclosing the epigraph: STATO DELLA CITTÀ DEL VATICANO,
with the beginning and the end at the bottom,
separated by eight-pointed stars.

[Cf. Fundamental law of the State of Vatican City dated 26.11.2000 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, Supplement, 01.02.2001, Attachment C).]

[Flag drawings © The Flag Institute & Graham Bartram; Drawing animated flag © Pascal Gross; Drawing coat of arms of the Holy See © Mario Fabretto]

Return to:

- Index Documentation
  [English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish]

- Index Holy See Press Office
  [English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish]