By Tiziana Campisi and Christopher Wells

Almost 16 centuries ago, the first Pope to bear the name Leo promoted the unity of the Church, highlighted the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, defined the doctrine of the Incarnation, composed some of the most beautiful prayers of the Roman Missal, and earned for himself the epithet “the Great.”

On May 8, the day of his election to the papacy, the new Pope Leo XIV received a silver pectoral cross donated by the Circolo San Pietro, containing relics of his illustrious predecessor, along with relics of St. Augustine of Hippo and Augustinian bishops St. Thomas of Villanova and Blessed Anselmo Polanco.

The Circolo San Pietro was founded in Rome in 1869 by a group of young people at the urging of Blessed Pope Pius IX, who entrusted them with their initial charitable duty of providing meals for the poor.

The idea of the Custode of the Apostolic Sanctuary

The idea of having a new “reliquary” cross made for Pope Leo XIV was the inspiration of Father Bruno Silvestrini, OSA, Custode del Sacrario Apostolico (Guardian of the Apostolic Sanctuary), and a member of the Augustinian community attached to the Pontifical Sacristy.

Picking up on his Augustinian confrere’s desire to entrust himself to the protection and guidance of Pope Leo the Great, Fr. Silvestrini turned to expert Antonino Cottone, who had already made five reliquaries using traditional medieval techniques.

Mr. Cottone created the pectoral cross reliquary, which was donated to Pope Leo by the Augustinian General Curia on the day he was created Cardinal, on 30 September 2023.

A painstaking task

It took the expert only two hours to create, with painstaking precision and passionate dedication, a new small cross with gilded paper filigrees (paperoles) on red moiré (“watered silk”, a textile whose appearance simulates the grain of wood or marble, producing an iridescent effect), where 4 tiny paper flowers held the relics of the 4 illustrious pastors of the Church.

Mr. Cottone skillfully rolled, shaped, and glued tiny strips of paper to create a series of decorative elements between which he then inserted the precious fragments of the “holy bones.”

Cross presented to Leo XIV

When he had finished his work, the artisan placed the “reliquary cross” inside the papal pectoral cross and presented it to Pope Leo XIV by placing it around his neck.

The Pope joyfully received the pectoral cross enriched with the relics of four bishops particularly dear to him.