Rome / Vatican City, September 2012. Constantinian Delegation knight Peter Jennings has informed us that the Vatican Post Office and Italian Post Office have jointly issued two attractive miniature sheets each containing a special postage stamp to commemorate the 1700th Anniversary of the famous Battle of Ponte Milvio. The stamps were released on 13 September 2012.
Just before the famous Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312, Emperor Constantine witnessed a sign in the sky, a cross with next to it written “In this sign, you shall conquer”.
The vision left a deep impression on Constantine who then had the shields of his soldiers marked with the Christian monogram XP, representing the two letters chi (X) and rho (P) of the Greek alphabet, the first two letters of the Greek word Christos meaning “anointed”, epithet attributed to Jesus.
The next day he confronted the enemy army and defeated it. This marked the beginning of a new chapter in the Roman Empire and the victory of Christian faith over paganism.
A year later, he issued the Edict of Milan (also known as the Edict of Constantine), which ended three centuries of oppression, persecution and martyrdom of Christians.
The miniature sheet reproduces a painting by Giulio Romano in the Sala di Costantino of the Vatican Museums.
The work is better known as “The battle against Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge”. Pope Leo X commissioned Raphael to paint it in 1517 but he, busy with many other tasks, only began to work on it shortly before he died. Giulio Romano, a student of his school, finished the work.
The Vatican miniature sheet consists of a 4,40 euro stamp, printed by Joh. Enschedé in The Netherlands. The Italian miniature sheet features a Euro 1,40 stamp. Anyone interested in purchasing these miniature sheets should do so online from the Vatican and Italian Philatelic Bureau. Vatican stamps are particularly popular with stamp collectors and non-collectors alike throughout the world.