Speaker
Description
On March 27th, 2020 a special event moved the whole of humanity regardless of religious beliefs: the Pope of the Catholic Church, alone in a completely empty Piazza san Pietro, and in the darkness of a rainy evening, raised a prayer to the God of all people to free us from the terrible pandemic that is overwhelming our lives. It is not the first time that Peter's successors have performed such gestures on the occasion of plagues, epidemic diseases and natural disasters. Some papal medals are linked to these actions of the Supreme Pontiffs, issued to commemorate the measures taken to alleviate people's sufferings, to thank God for his intervention in facing such tragic events, and to immortalize in metallic form the prayers of the Popes in times of troubles. This contribution intends to illustrate some of the most significant of these metallic records issued over the centuries by Popes and present their history.
