Lambs presented to Pope on Feast of St Agnes
Today (Tuesday) was the feast day of St Agnes and a traditional ceremony took place at the Vatican in which Pope Francis was presented with lambs, adorned with flowers.
Earlier, the lambs who are reared by Sisters from the Roman convent of San Lorenzo in Panisperna, were blessed in the Roman church where St Agnes is buried. The wool of these lambs is used to weave the pallia for the new metropolitan archbishops.
The pallium – a white stole adorned with six black crosses – is a liturgical vestment worn by the Pope and the metropolitan archbishops in their churches and in those of their provinces. The pallia are stored in a casket near the Confessio Petri and the pontiff bestows them upon the new archbishops on the Solemnity of the Saints Peter and Paul, as a sign of union with the Apostolic See.
The lambs are offered to the Pope by the Canons Regular of the Lateran on the feast day of St Agnes, martyred in the year 305. She is traditionally depicted with a lamb.
Source: VIS