Popes wear a ring. It is the piscatorio ring. That of Pope Francis has a particular history.
Here is the true story of Pope Francis’ piscatorio ring. As is known the ring is not in gold, but in gilded silver. It represents Peter with the keys and was made by the Romagna artist Enrico Manfrini two years before the death of Pope Paul VI, to whom he was destined. The pontiff would have liked it to be put on his finger to “present himself to the Divine Redeemer with this episcopal sign”. But things went differently and his secretary, Monsignor Pasquale Macchi together with Don Ettore Malnati of the Diocese of Trieste, kept it together with many other objects and jewels of the Pope and the Council. The jewel was a model, made of wax, a perishable material, which is why fifteen years ago Msgr. Macchi and Don Malnati decided to melt it in gilded silver. The wax ring was liquefied but the work was saved.
In the days of the Conclave, Don Malnati remembered that ring, spoke about it with the bishop of Trieste, Giampaolo Crepaldi, of whom he is a close collaborator, and got the suggestion to propose it for the new pope. The intermediary of the passage was Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re. It is to him in Rome that, with a trip almost seven hundred kilometers, the jewel is delivered. The cardinal in turn handed it over to the papal master of ceremonies who, together with two other rings, showed them to Pope Francis, who he chose. “I am very happy,” said Don Malnati, “that Pope Francis has this ring. I have not met the Pope but I like his style, it is congenial to a pastor, in the idea of meeting people ».
Manfrini, who lived in Milan, was part of a group of artists close to Pope Montini and who was involved, among other things, in recovering children with problems through the teaching of art. Manfrini, in particular, worked a lot in the sacred art sector and together with Rudelli, Lorenzetti and Scorzelli he created the Chapel of the Papal Apartment. Previously to Manfrini, Don Malnati recalled, “to make this type of jewelry was a company that went bankrupt, the Senesi”.
