On the occasion of the 97th anniversary of the Lateran Pacts and the 42nd anniversary of the Republican Concordat, talks between Italy and the Holy See were held on the afternoon of Tuesday, 17 February 2026, at Palazzo Borromeo, the seat of the Embassy of Italy to the Holy See.
Within the framework of an extraordinary meeting, topics of bilateral cooperation were addressed alongside the main dossiers on the international agenda.
At the conclusion of the talks, the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni and the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, were able to admire several relics of Saint Francis of Assisi, whose eighth centenary of death is being commemorated this year.
Among the works displayed at Palazzo Borromeo were: the relic of the “stocking of Saint Francis”, on loan from the Protomonastery of Santa Chiara in Assisi; a 13th-century Sanctoral Gradual manuscript; a 1510 printed volume by Bartolomeo da Pisa; a commemorative medal commemorating the discovery and official recognition of the body of Saint Francis of Assisi; a plate commissioned by Pope Sixtus V, depicting Saint Francis kneeling before the city of Assisi, receiving the stigmata (1588); and a woodcut by Tranquillo Marangoni, all on loan from the Vatican Apostolic Library.
