Banner o Vatican Ceety

The banner o Vatican Ceety wis adoptit on Juin 7, 1929, the year Pape Pius XI signed the Lateran Treaty wi Italy, creatin a new independent state governed bi the Holy See. The Vatican banner is modeled on the banner o the earlier Papal States.

Naitional banner. Banner ratio: 1:1

Oratory Kirk o St Aloysius Gonzaga, Oxford, wi the banner o Vatican Ceety flyin at hauf mast the day efter the daith o Pape John Paul II.

The banner taken tae the Moon bi Apollo 11, displayed in the Vatican Museums wi some muin rocks

The banner

The banner consists o twa vertical baunds, ane o gowd (hoist side) an ane o white wi the crossed keys o Saunt Peter an the Papal Tiara centered in the white baund. The crossed keys conseest o a golden an a siller key, in which the siller key is placed in the dexter poseetion. The banner is ane o ae twa square kintra banners in the warld, the ither bein the banner o Swisserland.

The Vatican Ceety coat o airms can be foond in the white hauf. The coat o airms consists o:

• the papal tiara (as uised unner the pontificate o Pius XI);
• the twa keys which represent the keys tae Heaven (accordin tae the Gospel o Matthew 16:19) gien bi Jesus Christ tae St. Peter. The popes are regardit as the successor o Peter, an the gowd an siller keys hae been significant elements in the seembolism o the Papal State syne the 13t century. The gowd represents spiritual pouer, while the siller key represents warldly pouer.
• a reid cord connectin the keys.

The yellae an white o the banner an aa refer tae the keys – in heraldic terminology, thare is nae distinction atween yellae an gowd (the metallic colour or), nor atween white an siller (argent).

The banner is flewn or displayed warldwide in Roman Catholic kirks an institutions, uisually alangside the naitional banner o whaur the kirk or institution is locatit.

The flag o the Holy See

As statit abuins, the banner o the Vatican Ceety State shows the airms wi the siller key in the dexter poseetion. In case o the banner o the Holy See, which is no the same as the Vatican Ceety State, the keys are reversed. When the Vatican Ceety State wis established in 1929, the keys in the airms o the Holy See, which shows the gowd ane in dexter poseetion, wur reversed tae provide a distinctive seembol for the new state. In the personal airms o the popes, the keys are arranged as in the airms o the Holy See. The opposite arrangement wad be equivalent tae treatin him as merely the heid o that little state.