The golden roses of the Popes
In the chronicles of the papal court, there is also the list of the expenses of 1736 and among them is recorded: To Michele Carlier Silversmith to account of the price of the Golden Rose 865.00 scudi
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Golden Rose is the maximum non-chivalrous recognition that the Pope grants since the year 1000 AD; originally it was attributed to kings or queens, but after 1759 exclusively to the queens (the last queen to receive it was Helena Queen of Italy in 1937), after the Second Vatican Council the gift of the Rose is tribute only to Marian shrines.
The ceremony of the rose is almost certainly grafted onto the ancient pagan festival of the victory of spring over winter and was already in use even before the XI century when there is the first certain documentation. The meaning in the Christian tradition is that of joy for the approach of Easter and represents Jesus and his fragrance, who receives the rose has the task of bringing with the example of life and works the teaching of Christ. The gift became an honor in 1049 by the will of Leo IX.
In the first years the Rose was blessed during the Mass celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent, called Domenica in Laetere, in the Church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme also, from a document preserved just in the Church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme it seems that the introduction of ritual has been commissioned by Pope Gregory the Great.
Also its shape has changed over time: at the beginning it was only one gold rose with the red painted bud, then the painted bud was replaced with a ruby in the center of the rose; in the XV century it became a branch with leaves and more roses and a higher and larger central one inside which there was a small tank in which was placed balsam with chopped moss in imitation of the fragrance of the rose, a fragrance to which it was also attributed meaning .
It was considered a great honor to receive the rose and even more when it was given to a city. In 1419 Pope Martin V gave it to the city of Florence; on March 25 he celebrated a solemn Mass in the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella "where so many people rushed, who crowded one on top of the other so much that many women and men were hurt". The Pope had with him a Golden Rose composed of a branch with nine roses, the largest of which had a sapphire at its center, which he handed over to the Signoria's proposal that, because all the people wanted to see it, he carried it around for Florence that for the occasion was parade in festive.
No less beautiful is the Rose that Alexander VII Chigi wanted to donate to the Cathedral of his city, Siena, and which he had made by Gianlorenzo Bernini.
But there were Golden Roses donated and lost like the one that in 1458 Pius II, just elected, wanted to give to Corsignano, a town near Pienza where the Rose was kept; It happened that eighty years later the canon of the Cathedral of Pienza gave it to a master goldsmith in exchange for two silver statues: the statues were not made but the Rose of Gold disappeared and nothing was known.
Another missing golden rose is the one donated by Martin V to St. Peter's Basilica and kept in the Treasury of St. Peter, that was sacked in 1527 by Lansquenetes of Charles V.
According to recent studies it seems that in over 1000 years the Popes have given away 180 Golden Roses.
by M.L. ©ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (Ed 1.0 - 13/01/2020)