March 21: Papier-mâché Tiara

The Papal Tiara is the crown of the papacy. For over a millennium, all popes were crowned with a tiara. Until Pope Benedict XVI, the tiara was prominently placed on the papal coat of arms. Pope Benedict has replaced the tiara with a traditional bishops mitre.

The papier-mâché tiara is a papal tiara that was made in exile for Pope Pius VII's papal coronation in a church in Venice. In 1798, Pope Pius's predecessor Pope Pius VI had been forced into exile when French troops invaded the Vatican and stole or destroyed all the ancient papal tiaras owned by the Holy See. When the ill Pius VI died in exile, the College of Cardinals elected Giorgio Barnaba Luigi Chiaramonti to the papacy.

A coronation was arranged for the new pope in a church in the cramped Benedictine monastery of San Giorgio on 21 March 1800. However, the church lacked a papal tiara with which to crown him. At short notice, a temporary tiara was manufactured using papier-mâché, and local aristocratic ladies donated their private jewels to decorate the new temporary crown.

A new silver papal tiara to replace the destroyed ones was only manufactured in 1820, but the papier-mâché tiara continued in usage for decades afterwards, its lightweight design making it a comfortable alternative to the heavier silver alternative for popes as they aged. It was finally officially retired from usage in 1845, when a new lightweight tiara was manufactured for Pope Gregory XVI. Contemporary reports suggested that Pope Gregory viewed it as demeaning that the Vicar of Christ should be seen wearing a crown made not from gold or silver but from mere crushed paper.

Interesting article on Pope Benedict XVI coat of arms (with mitre hat): Coat of arms

So come lose your life for a carpenter's son

For a madman who died for a dream
And You'll have the faith His first followers had
And you'll feel the weight of the beam
So surrender the hunger to say you must know
Find the courage to say I believe
For the power of paradox opens your eyes
And blinds those who say they can see

We in our foolishness thought we were wise
He played the fool and He opened our eyes
We in our weakness believed we were strong
He became helpless to show we were wrong
So we follow God's own Fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well

-God's Own Fool, Michael Card