On October 1, 1954, Vatican City commemorated the 200th anniversary of the elevation of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi to the status of a papal chapel by issuing two stamps, a violet-black and cream 20-lira value, and a deep brown and cream 35-lira value.
The two stamps feature a horizontal design framing an image of the Basilica of St. Francis. The papal insignia appears alongside the vignette. Post Vaticanne appears at the top. Postal indicia appear at the bottom, right of the vignette.
The son of a wealthy cloth manufacturer, St. Francis of Assisi (ca. 1181-1228), purportedly gazed at an icon at the Church of St. Damiano and heard the words "Francis, repair my falling house" spoken to him by Jesus. Francis took these words literally, sold goods from his father's warehouse to underpin his work, and his father disowned him. Francis embraced a life of poverty that attracted a group of followers. In 1210, Pope Innocent III (1160-1216) authorized Francis and his companions as roving preachers following a life of poverty and simplicity as Friars Minor. He received his friend St. Claire (1194-1253) into an order for women in 1212. In 1224, Francis received the stigmata (visible wounds of Christ), which he bore painfully and secretly until his death. The basilica in which he is buried bears his name. It was erected in the years immediately following his death (1228), the same year he was proclaimed a saint. Approximately twenty-five earthquakes have shaken the basilica since the thirteenth century, most recently on September 26, 1997. That earthquake damaged frescoes and structural portions of the upper church.
The stamps measure 4 cm x 3 cm, contain the Crossed Keys of St. Peter watermark, and are perforated 14 x 14. P. G. Leraio designed the stamps, which the Italian State Printers, Rome, produced using the photogravure process. The 250,000 sets remained on sale until December 31, 1955.
References:
"Vatikanstaat," in Michel Europa Katalog, band 3, Südeuropa, Unterschleißheim, Germany: Schwanberger Verlag GMBH, 2008.
"Vatican City," in Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue, part 8, Italy and Switzerland, 7th edition, Ringwood, Hampshire, England, 2010.
"St. Francis of Assisi," in Donald Attwater and Catherine Rachel John, The Penguin Dictionary of Saints, 3rd edition, London: Penguin Books, 1995.
"St. Francis of Assisi," in Donald Hugh Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of the Saints, 5th edition, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2004.
