On June 5, 1990, Vatican City issued a series of three stamps commemorating the 1300th anniversary of the beginning of St. Willibrord's missionary work in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The stained glass windows of the Basilica of Echternach, Luxembourg, inspired the stamp designs.
The 3,000-lire stamp depicts St. Willibrord receiving the complete donation of the city of Echternach from King Pepin and St. Willibrord leaving all his belongings to the Abbey of Echternach before his death.
St. Willibrord was born to a noble family of Northumberland (England) in 658. In his youth, he dedicated his life to the service of the Church and entered the Benedictine order. He went to Ireland in 678 and was ordained to the priesthood ten years later. In 690, he and eleven companions began missionary activity in Frisia (the Netherlands). In 695, Pope Sergius I ordained him the first Archbishop of Utrecht. Shortly afterwards, he established a monastery at Echternach, Luxembourg, where he carried on his pastoral and missionary work from 704 until his death in 739. St. Willibrord is especially venerated in Luxembourg and is commonly called the "The Apostle of Benelux" (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg).
Pietro Nicolo Arghittu engraved the designs. The Italian State Polygraphic Institute and Mint printed 450,000 complete series. The stamps are vertical in format, measure 30 x 40 mm, and have a perforation of 13 1/4 x 14. The Italian State Polygraphic Institute and Mint produced the stamps, issued in sheets of twenty, by rotogravure on white chalky. At the top of each stamp is the inscription 1300th ANNIV. INIZIO ATTIVITA MISSIONSRIA. At the bottom appear the words SAN WILLIBRORD 690-1990, POSTE VATICANE, and the value.
Crimando, Thomas. "1300th Anniversary of the Beginning of the Missionary Activity of St. Willibrord." Vatican Notes 39, no. 2 (September 1990): 1, 4.
