Matteo Ricci 利玛窦

 

Italy
20 April 2022

Matteo Ricci SJ (6 October 1552 – 11 May 1610) was an Italian Jesuit priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions.   Ricci arrived at the Portuguese settlement of Macau in 1582 where he began his missionary work in China.   He mastered the Chinese language and writing system. He became the first European to enter the Forbidden City of Beijing in 1601 when invited by the Wanli Emperor, who sought his services in matters such as court astronomy and calendrical science. He emphasized parallels between Catholicism and Confucianism but opposed Buddhism. He converted several prominent Chinese officials to Catholicism.   Ricci created the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, a 1602 map of the world written in Chinese characters.   Ricci also worked with several Chinese elites, such as Xu Guangqi, in translating Euclid's Elements into Chinese as well as the Confucian classics into Latin for the first time in history.

马泰奥·里奇（1552年10月6日—1610年5月11日），漢名利玛窦，号西泰，又号清泰、西江，天主教耶稣會意大利籍神父、传教士、学者。利玛窦在明朝颇受士大夫的敬重，尊称为“泰西儒士”，是天主教在華传教的开拓者之一。   万历十年（1521年）利玛窦前往中国传教，8月7日到达澳門。   万历十一年（1583年）利玛窦获准與羅明堅神父入居广东肇庆。   萬曆十二年（1584年），利瑪竇與明朝光祿寺少卿李之藻合作刊刻的世界地圖《坤輿萬國全圖》。   利玛窦还翻译了《十誡》、《天主經》、《圣母赞歌》，《教理问答书》。译拉丁文《四书》，与瞿汝夔一起翻译了欧几里得《几何原本》     他除传播天主教教义外，还广交中国官员和社会名流，传播西方天文、数学、地理等科学技术知识。他的著述不仅对中西交流作出了重要贡献，对日本和朝鲜半岛上的国家认识西方文明也产生了重要影响。

Vatican City

22 June 2010

Sovereign Military Order of Malta

20 April 2010 

Macau

30 November 2006

Taiwan
3 April 1983

Israel-Vatican Joint Issue 2019 25 Years of Bilateral Relations

 
The 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the State of Israel and the Holy See is a time for joy as well as acknowledgement of the long way we have travelled together along a path of reconciliation and friendship.
 
On Dec 30th 1993, Israel and the Holy See signed in Jerusalem the fundamental agreement establishing full diplomatic relations between our two states. This unique bonding between the only Jewish State and the universal Catholic Church combines both political and spiritual elements.
 
The special Joint Stamp issued by the Israel Philatelic Service and the Holy See Numismatic Service to commemorate the 25th anniversary depicts St. Peter’s Church and the synagogue at Capernaum and symbolizes the unique relations and interactions between Judaism and Christianity.
 

 

Capernaum

Capernaum is an archeological site on the Sea of Galilee shore, north of Tiberias. A town from the Roman Byzantine period which was mentioned in a book by the ancient Jewish historian Josephus (Yosef ben Matityahu) was excavated at the site. Capernaum’s historical and religious significance stems from what is written about it in the New Testament, and the fact that this was where Jesus lived during his time in the Galilee. One of the most magnificent ancient synagogues in Eretz Israel was discovered in the center of the town, alongside the remnants of an octagonal church from the Byzantine period.
 
The Gospel of Mark features a description of how Jesus began his religious mission after being baptized in the Jordan River. He went northward to the Galilee, where he located his first students, fishermen in the Sea of Galilee. Together with these students, he made his way to the nearby town of Capernaum, where some of them lived. “They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach” (Mark 1:21). This was the first time Jesus had appeared before the Jewish public in the Galilee. He was revealed to be an authoritative Halachic teacher and also miraculously healed a man who was overtaken by a demon.
 
At the end of the prayers, Jesus and his students “left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon and Andrew” (Mark 1:29), where Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law of her fever. “That evening after sunset… The whole town gathered at the door and Jesus healed many who had various diseases” (Mark 1:32-34). During the Byzantine period a grand church was built to mark the place where Simon the student’s house was traditionally thought to have been. In 1990, a modern church was constructed on the ruins of the Byzantine church, which was discovered in the early 20th century, hovering over the ancient remains.
 
The church and the synagogue, which are currently overseen by the Franciscan order, attract tourists and Christian pilgrims from all around the world.
 

Vatican City : Map

 Vatican City  is a landlocked sovereign country, city-state, microstate, and enclave within Rome, Italy. It became independent from Italy in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty, and it is a distinct territory under "full ownership, exclusive dominion, and sovereign authority and jurisdiction" of the Holy See, itself a sovereign entity under international law, which maintains the city-state's temporal power and governance, diplomatic, and spiritual independence. The Vatican is also a metonym for the pope, the city-state's and worldwide Catholic Church government Holy See, and Roman Curia.

With an area of 49 hectares (121 acres) and as of 2023 a population of about 764, it is the smallest state in the world both by area and by population. As governed by the Holy See, Vatican City State is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state ruled by the Pope, who is the bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church. The highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various origins. After the Avignon Papacy (1309–1377) the popes have mainly resided at the Apostolic Palace within what is now Vatican City, although at times residing instead in the Quirinal Palace in Rome or elsewhere.

The Holy See dates back to early Christianity and is the principal episcopal see of the Catholic Church, which has approximately 1.329 billion baptised Catholics in the world as of 2018 in the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches. The independent state of Vatican City, on the other hand, came into existence on 11 February 1929 by the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and Italy, which spoke of it as a new creation, not as a vestige of the much larger Papal States (756–1870), which had previously encompassed much of Central Italy.

Vatican City contains religious and cultural sites such as St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican Apostolic Library, and the Vatican Museums. They feature some of the world's most famous paintings and sculptures. The unique economy of Vatican City is supported financially by donations from the faithful, by the sale of postage stamps and souvenirs, fees for admission to museums, and sales of publications. Vatican City has no taxes, and items are duty-free.

1933 Express Stamps

14 April 1986

In 1984, the Vatican was added by UNESCO to the List of World Heritage Sites; it is the only one to consist of an entire state.

10 February 2009 : The 80th Anniversary of Vatican City

11 February 2019 : The 90th Anniversary of the Lateran Treaty

The Lateran Treaty  was one component of the Lateran Pacts of 1929, agreements between the Kingdom of Italy under King Victor Emmanuel III (with his Prime Minister Benito Mussolini) and the Holy See under Pope Pius XI to settle the long-standing Roman Question. 

The treaty and associated pacts were named after the Lateran Palace where they were signed on 11 February 1929, and the Italian parliament ratified them on 7 June 1929. The treaty recognised Vatican City as an independent state under the sovereignty of the Holy See. The Italian government also agreed to give the Roman Catholic Church financial compensation for the loss of the Papal States. 

In 1948, the Lateran Treaty was recognized in the Constitution of Italy as regulating the relations between the state and the Catholic Church. The treaty was significantly revised in 1984, ending the status of Catholicism as the sole state religion.

Israel-Vatican Joint Issue 2015 Church of the Holy Sepulchre

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands on the site where Jesus, according to Christian belief, was crucified, buried and resurrected. This church, considered to be one of the most significant and holiest churches in the world, has been a key site for Christian pilgrims since the 4th century.

While the visit by Pope Francis to Israel in May 2014 was officially described as a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he participated in two events bearing both historic significance and importance for the future: the Pope met with Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I (to mark the 50th anniversary of the historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I); and placed a wreath at the gravesite of Theodor Herzl, "visionary" of the State of Israel, another indication of the strengthening ties between Israel and the Vatican, and between Judaism and the Catholic Church.

The three previous papal visits to Israel were made by Pope Paul VI in 1964, Pope John Paul II in 2000 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.

The establishment of full diplomatic relations between the State of Israel and the Holy See (as per the terms of the Fundamental Agreement signed in Jerusalem in 1993) was a significant step in the historic process of the Church's changing attitude toward Judaism and the Jewish people. The first public expression of this change was the famous declaration known as Nostra Aetate ("In Our Time"), the declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions published by the Second Vatican Council in 1965. The year 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of that declaration, which was realized and strengthened through productive dialog, meetings and cooperation.

In the Fundamental Agreement signed by Israel and the Holy See, the parties noted "the unique nature of the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people…" and committed to "appropriate cooperation in combating all forms of anti-Semitism and all kinds of racism and of religious intolerance, and in promoting mutual understanding among nations, tolerance among communities and respect for human life and dignity", and to "the peaceful resolution of conflicts among States and nations, excluding violence and terror from international life".

Additional commitments related to preserving the status quo of the holy Christian sites, issues surrounding freedom of religion, pilgrimage to the Holy Land and more.

In November 1997 an agreement defining the status of the Catholic Church in the State of Israel was signed in Jerusalem.

 

 

 

The stamp features the courtyard at the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem.

 

The background of the souvenir leaf features Mount Zion and the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.

 

The First Day Cover features the entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre before it was renovated and before the ornamented lintel was removed. 

A self adhesive Postal Label was issued in 26 May 2014, with the inscription "Pope Francis in the Holy Land"

Israel-Vatican Joint Issue 2010 Garden of Gethsemane

 
 

 
The Garden of Gethsemane, at the foot of the Mount of Olives in the Kidron Valley, is the place where Jesus prayed with his disciples in the night before his crucifixion. The Garden of Gethsemane was a focal site for early Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. Overlooking the garden is the Church of All Nations.
 
The visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Israel in May 2009 was officially described as “a pilgrimage to the Holy Land”. To date, there have been two other papal visits to Israel, made by Pope Paul VI in 1964 and Pope John Paul II in 2000.
 
The establishment of full diplomatic relations between Israel and the Holy See (in accordance with the terms of the Fundamental Agreement signed in Jerusalem in December 1993) may be considered an extremely significant step in the historic process of change in the Church’s attitude toward Judaism and the Jewish people, the first public expression of which came in the form of the declaration known as Nostra Aetate (the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions), published by the Second Vatican Council in 1965.
 
In the Fundamental Agreement, Israel and the Holy See noted the “unique nature of the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people…” and committed to “appropriate cooperation in combating all forms of Anti-Semitism and all kinds of racism and of religious intolerance, and in promoting mutual understanding among nations, tolerance among communities and respect for human life and dignity”, and to “the promotion of the peaceful resolution of conflicts among States and nations, excluding violence and terror from international life”. Other commitments related to preserving the status quo of holy Christian sites, questions regarding freedom of religion, pilgrimages to the Holy Land and other issues.
In November 1997 an agreement defining the status of the Catholic Church in the State of Israel and the hierarchy thereof according to Israeli law was signed in Jerusalem. This was the first time that the government in the Holy Land recognized the Catholic Church de jure.
 
Diplomatic relations were enriched in 2003, with the establishment of an annual forum for dialogue between the Vatican Council and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.
 
 
 

The stamp features some of the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem. The Church of All Nations appears in the background of the stamp and on the tab.
 

The letter placed by Pope Benedict XVI among the stones of the Western Wall is shown on the margin of the Israeli stamp sheet and the margin of the Vatican stamp sheet shows the Pope at the Western Wall.
 

Vatican City : St. Peter's Basilica

The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican ( Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica, is a church of the Italian High Renaissance located in Vatican City.  It was initially planned in the 15th century by Pope Nicholas V and then Pope Julius II to replace the ageing Old St. Peter's Basilica, which was built in the fourth century by Roman emperor Constantine the Great. 

Construction of the present basilica began on 18 April 1506 and was completed on 18 November 1626.

Designed principally by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, and Carlo Maderno, with piazza and fittings by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, St. Peter's is one of the most renowned works of Italian Renaissance architecture and is the largest church in the world by interior measure. 

Catholic tradition holds that the basilica is the burial site of Saint Peter, chief among Jesus's apostles and also the first Bishop of Rome (Pope). Saint Peter's tomb is directly below the high altar of the basilica, also known as the Altar of the Confession. 

St. Peter's is one of the four churches in the world that hold the rank of Major papal basilica, all four of which are in Rome, and is also one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome. Contrary to popular misconception, it is not a cathedral because it is not the seat of a bishop; the cathedra of the pope as bishop of Rome is at the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran.

31 May 1933

St. Peter's Basilica

7 March 1949

21 December 1949

27 October 1959

The Vatican Obelisk is an Egyptian obelisk, one of the thirteen ancient obelisks of Rome, located in St. Peter's Square, in Vatican City. It is the only ancient obelisk in Rome that has never fallen.

Made of red granite, it has a height of 25.3 meters and, together with the cross and the base (composed of four bronze lions, by Prospero Antichi), it reaches almost 40 meters.

It is of Egyptian origin, devoid of hieroglyphs and comes, according to Pliny, from the city of Heliopolis; it was originally placed in the Forum Iulii of Alexandria in Egypt and was brought to Rome by Caligula in 40 AD, and placed at the center of the Circus of Nero. It remained in this position after the circus fell into disuse, occupied by a necropolis. In the 16th century it was moved next to the Old St. Peter's Basilica, at the Rotonda di Sant'Andrea.

22 May 1975 : Mardeno Fountain

The Fountains of St. Peter's Square (Fontane di Piazza San Pietro) are two fountains in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, created by Carlo Maderno (1612–1614) and Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1667–1677) to ornament the square in front of St. Peter's Basilica. 

16 October 1980

The left side of each stamp depicts a self-portrait of Bernini. A medallion commemorating one of Bernini's great works appears on the right side:

80-lire medallion depicts the Baldacchino in Saint Peter's Basilica. 

170-lire medallion depicts St. Peter's Square with a third wing.

250-lire medallion depicts the bronze chair and a group of Doctors of the Church in St. Peter's Basilica. 

350-lire medallion depicts the royal stairway leading into the Apostolic Palace. 

The originals of both the medallions and self-portrait are preserved in the Vatican Apostolic Library.

11 Nov 1991

In the Catholic Church, the Synod of Bishops, considered as an advisory body for the pope, is one of the ways in which the bishops render cooperative assistance to him in exercising his office. It is described in the 1983 Code of Canon Law as "a group of bishops who have been chosen from different regions of the world and meet at fixed times to foster closer unity between the Roman Pontiff and bishops, to assist the Roman Pontiff with their counsel in the preservation and growth of faith and morals and in the observance and strengthening of ecclesiastical discipline, and to consider questions pertaining to the activity of the Church in the world."

23 March 1993

4 February 2000

St Peter & St. Peter's Basilica

Vatican City 1999 EUROPA "Nature Reserves and Parks"

 

Vatican City 1992 Flora of the New World

 

Vatican City 1991 Sistine Chapel "Lunettes of the Ancestors of Christ"

The Sistine Chapel Ceiling And Lunettes mural was originally painted 500 years ago. Michelangelo's fresco masterpiece was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV and took four years to complete. The center panels of the Sistine ceiling depict nice scenes from the Book of Genesis. They are surrounded by crescent-shaped areas, or lunettes, with tablets listing ancestors of Christ and accompanying figures.

Michelangelo painted the Forefathers of Christ listed at the beginning of the Gospel of St Matthew (Matthew 1: 1-17), which, starting from Abraham, gives the names of forty forefathers of Christ, shown here not so much as historical images but as symbolic figurations of mankind caught in various attitudes and above all in its formation into family units. 

Numerous attempts to link the names written on the labels to the personages shown have not permitted them to be identified with any certainty.

This collectible set of twelve Vatican City postage stamps was issued to honor the restoration of the Sistine Chapel. Images depicted on the stamps show details from "Lunettes of the Ancestors of Christ" by Michelangelo.

Issue date: April 9, 1991

Size of each stamp: 34 x 29 mm

Colors: Multicolor

Emission: Definitive

Perforation: 11¼

Printing: Photogravure

Vatican City 1964 Sistine Chapel

 Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti  Simoni (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. 

The Sistine Chapel ceiling was painted between 1508 and 1512. The ceiling is a flattened barrel vault supported on twelve triangular pendentives that rise from between the windows of the chapel. 

The commission, as envisaged by Pope Julius II, was to adorn the pendentives with figures of the twelve apostles. Michelangelo, who was reluctant to take the job, persuaded the Pope to give him a free hand in the composition. The resultant scheme of decoration awed his  contemporaries and has inspired other artists ever since. The scheme is of nine panels illustrating episodes from the Book of Genesis, set in an architectonic frame. On the pendentives, Michelangelo replaced the proposed Apostles with Prophets and Sibyls who heralded the coming of the Messiah.

Vatican City 1967 Airmail Stamps

Vatican City  is a landlocked sovereign country, city-state, microstate, and enclave within Rome, Italy. It became independent from Italy in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty, and it is a distinct territory under "full ownership, exclusive dominion, and sovereign authority and jurisdiction" of the Holy See, itself a sovereign entity under international law, which maintains the city-state's temporal power and governance, diplomatic, and spiritual independence. The Vatican is also a metonym for the pope, the city-state's and worldwide Catholic Church government Holy See, and Roman Curia.

With an area of 49 hectares (121 acres) and as of 2023 a population of about 764, it is the smallest state in the world both by area and by population. As governed by the Holy See, Vatican City State is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state ruled by the Pope, who is the bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church. The highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various origins. After the Avignon Papacy (1309–1377) the popes have mainly resided at the Apostolic Palace within what is now Vatican City, although at times residing instead in the Quirinal Palace in Rome or elsewhere.

The Holy See dates back to early Christianity and is the principal episcopal see of the Catholic Church, which has approximately 1.329 billion baptised Catholics in the world as of 2018 in the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches. The independent state of Vatican City, on the other hand, came into existence on 11 February 1929 by the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and Italy, which spoke of it as a new creation, not as a vestige of the much larger Papal States (756–1870), which had previously encompassed much of Central Italy.

Vatican City contains religious and cultural sites such as St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican Apostolic Library, and the Vatican Museums. They feature some of the world's most famous paintings and sculptures. The unique economy of Vatican City is supported financially by donations from the faithful, by the sale of postage stamps and souvenirs, fees for admission to museums, and sales of publications. Vatican City has no taxes, and items are duty-free.

Airmail Stamp

An airmail stamp is a postage stamp intended to pay either an airmail fee that is charged in addition to the surface rate, or the full airmail rate, for an item of mail to be transported by air.

Airmail stamps should not be confused with airmail etiquettes, which are affixed to mail as an instruction to the postal authority that the mail should be transmitted by air.

7 Mar 1967

This collectible set of six air mail postage stamps featuring views of the Vatican was issued by Vatican City on March 7, 1967. Images depicted on the stamps are as follows:

20 lira and 100 lira - Jetliner over St. Peter's
40 lira and 200 lira - Radio Mast and St. Gabriel's Statue
90 lira and 500 - Aerial view of St. Peter's

Color: multicolor
Watermark: Crossed keys
Size of each stamp: 30 x 40 mm.
Print run: 2,000,000.