Vatican Museums

The Director Barbara Jatta will introduce, on Wednesday 29 May, the presentation of the volume edited by Pietro Zander, “The wooden Crucifix of Saint Peter's Basilica”: the new publication dedicated to the venerated sculpture of the first decades of the fourteenth century which, with the exception of the first Holy Year of 1300, has been present for all the Jubilees in history and which, on the occasion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy convoked by Pope Francis, was restored to the devotion of the faithful in the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament.

The most ancient wooden Crucifix of Saint Peter’s Basilica – a prized but almost forgotten work and little known to most – rediscovered its touching beauty and integrity following a challenging restoration intervention completed in September 2016, made possible thanks to the support of the Order of the Knights of Columbus, and the patient and skilled work of the restorers, Professors Giorgio Capriotti and Lorenza D’Alessandro, coordinated by the Fabric of Saint Peter.

“The ancient Crucifix lets us almost touch with our hands the final moment of the Passion of Jesus: the face is serene, the gaze is full of compassion, the mouth is open to grant us the last word of love” (Cardinal Angelo Comastri, Vicar General of His Holiness for Vatican City).