Why Pope Francis's signet ring must be destroyed with a silver hammer

Pope Francis was to be buried at the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome on Saturday following a funeral mass in St. Peter’s Square. The ceremony began at 10 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET). Among the oldest traditions that mark the funeral preparations for Pope Francis is the destruction of his signet ring, the Ring of the Fisherman, one of the most storied pieces of papal regalia. Kissing the pope’s ring as a sign of respect is such a famous gesture that is has become a general expression for deference to authority, and the practice occasionally bothered Francis so much on grounds of hygiene and infection control that he would sometimes withdraw his right hand when people went to kiss it as they met him. Each pope gets his own new ring made at his investiture, which is then destroyed at the end of his papacy, which usually but not always coincides with his death. The National Post runs through the history and significance of this ring that is known in Latin as the “Anulus piscatoris.” Why does the pope have a ring? Originally, in about the 6th century, the ring was intended as a unique seal for private correspondence and other papal writings that were less formal than a “papal bull,” the grand official pronouncements that are so called because they are authenticated with a lead seal called a “bulla.” That practice is no longer in use, but the ring tradition remains. Why is it destroyed after his death? This practice of destroying the ring ensured there could be no faked letters that might conveniently emerge during the period when there is no pope. The tradition is carried out after confirmation of a pope’s death by the “camerlengo,” a cardinal who manages Vatican affairs, who destroys the ring with a ceremonial silver hammer. When Benedict XVI resigned the papacy in 2013, his elaborate gold ring was not destroyed but rather defaced by cutting a cross into the gold. Francis’s ring is a simpler piece than Benedict’s, and was repurposed from a gold-plated silver ring already owned by the Vatican, with an image of Saint Peter holding the keys to heaven. When Francis appeared in public, however, he more commonly wore an even simpler silver ring with just a cross on it. Where do popes buy their jewellery? These are almost always custom pieces, although Francis’s ring was not newly made for him. It had previously been owned by Archbishop Pasquale Macchi, the private secretary of Pope Paul VI, a key force behind the mid-20th century reforms of the Second Vatican Council. It was made by the late Enrico Manfrini, an Italian goldsmith and sculptor who is known for major works including a door to the Cathedral of Siena and statues of several popes. Why is it called the Piscatory Ring? The Piscatory Ring, or the Ring of the Fisherman, is a direct nod to Peter, the first Bishop of Rome, the seat held by popes. Peter was a fisherman in Galilee when he first followed Jesus, so the image on the papal ring is often of Peter in a boat. But it also refers to the significance of fish in Christian symbolism. For example, early Christians were persecuted in the Roman Empire, and Peter himself is reputed to have been crucified by the Emperor Nero, and buried on what is now the site of Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. In that climate of fear, the sign of the fish became a secret symbol of Christianity in reference to Peter and the apostles, whom Jesus had encouraged to be “fishers of people,” and also for the Greek spelling of the word fish, “ichthys,” which can be seen as an acronym for the Greek expression “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.” The symbol carried on into medieval literature. In some renderings of King Arthurian legend, for example, the wounded Fisher King is the mysterious keeper of the Holy Grail.

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