Vatican Misspells 'Jesus' on Thousands of Commemorative Medals
Thousands of commemorative medals issued by the Vatican to celebrate Pope Francis’s first year of papacy had to be withdrawn this week over a typo. It seems the Vatican misspelled "Jesus."
Produced by the Italian State Mint, the 6,200 gold, silver, and bronze medallions were supposed to be imprinted with Francis's official motto, "VIDIT ERGO IESVS PVBLICANUM ET QVIA MISERANDO ATQVE ELIGENDO VIDIT, AIT ILLI SEQVERE ME" ("Jesus, therefore, saw the publican, and because he saw by having mercy and by choosing, He said to him, 'Follow me'").
But an embarrassing typo accidentally turned "IESVS" into "LESVS," and no one noticed the error before the medals went on sale.
Luckily for the Vatican, only four medallions were sold before the rest were recalled and, presumably, destroyed.
Even luckier, however, are the Pope-heads who picked up one of the blasphemous souvenirs before the recall.
Collectors expect the four misspelled medals to be worth quite a bit more than their by-the-Good-Book counterparts.
Praise Lesus.