The card attached to the fountain pen is a document of authenticity for the item.
It states that this fountain pen was used many times by His Holiness, Pope Benedict XV.
The card was signed by Giuseppe Faggiani in Rome on June 22, 1918.
Pope Benedict XV reigned from 1914 – 1922. Despite the myriad gifts he brought to the Church, including his immense generosity to the poor during WW I and his enormous diplomatic skills that were rejected by both the Allied and Axis powers, he is considered to be the most forgotten Pope of the 20th century. Any item belonging to this Pope is considered rare and of great value to this Collection.
Papal Artifacts honors the gift of his life to our Church and to our world.
Earlier this year the Curator of Papal Artifacts, Father Richard Kunst, was gracious enough to assist the Aquilinas with the use of many of his artifacts in the compilation of this new book. One of the entries was about this fountain pen and the Peace Pope who used it. We are featuring their entry here and strongly recommend his book.
From A History of the Church in 100 Objects
Mike & Grace Aquilina
Here is an excerpt from this entry. (NOTE: The fountain pen graces the cover of his book.)
Pope Benedict XV’s Fountain Pen
He used this pen often as he advocated for peace.
It was Cardinal Giacomo della Chiresa’s cross to be elected pope at the onset of the First World War. The electors chose a relatively young man, at fifty-nine, strong enough to weather the storm that everyone saw coming.
More importantly, they chose an experienced diplomat who had worked for years in the Holy See’s State Department.
He chose the name Benedict XV and declared from the start the Holy See would remain neutral–in spite of tremendous pressure to follow the lead of newly unified Italy. None the less, the predominantly Protestant nations suspected him of favoring the Catholic nations–and the Catholic nations resented his meddling.
In his first encyclical letter, Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, he described in most moving terms “the sad conditions of human society…perhaps the saddest and most mournful spectacle of which there is any record.”
The Aquilinas go on to describe Pope Benedict as succeeding in demonstrating the Vatican’s neutrality and the Pope’s deep concern aboutr the stockpiling of arms and all it would lead to in the future. He saw the Great War as a useless massacre and the suicide of civilized Europe.
He became known as the Peace Pope for all he tried to do to promote peace. We honor him today on the anniversary of his birth.