Popes wear a ring. It is the piscatorio ring. That of Pope Francis has a particular history.
Here is the true story of the Fisherman’s Ring. For Pope Leo XIV, the ring depicts Saint Peter with the keys and the net, with the pope’s name engraved inside, and is worn on the ring finger of the right hand. The ring is not gold, but gilded silver. It depicts Peter with the keys and was created by the Romagna artist Enrico Manfrini two years before the death of Pope Paul VI, for whom it was intended and delivered to the pontiff during the Mass inaugurating his Petrine ministry. The pontiff wanted it placed on his finger to “present himself to the Divine Redeemer with this episcopal sign.” But things turned out differently, and his secretary, Monsignor Pasquale Macchi, together with Don Ettore Malnati of the Diocese of Trieste, kept it along with many other objects and jewelry belonging to the pope and the Council. The jewel was made of wax, a perishable material, so fifteen years ago Monsignor Macchi and Don Malnati decided to have it cast in gilded silver. The wax ring melted, but the work was saved.
During the Conclave, Don Malnati remembered that ring and spoke about it with the bishop of Trieste, Giampaolo Crepaldi, with whom he is a close collaborator, and received his suggestion to propose it for the new pope. The intermediary for the transfer was Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re. It was to him in Rome, after nearly 700 kilometers, that the jewel was delivered. The cardinal in turn handed it to the papal masters of ceremonies and, along with two other rings, they previously showed them to Pope Francis, who chose him. “I am very happy,” Don Malnati said later, “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 reaching out to the people.” Now the ring has passed to Pope Leo XIV.
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”.
