The Vatican Philatelic Office has released its 2025 commemorative stamps, a collection that unites faith, culture, and art in the Jubilee Year. Among the new issues is a 2.55-euro stamp honoring St. Kateri Tekakwitha — known as the “Lily of the Mohawks” — the first Native American saint from what is now the United States.
The stamp depicts Kateri surrounded by natural imagery that evokes her Mohawk heritage and her profound sense of harmony with creation. It praises her as a “testimony of hope.”
Canonized in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI, Kateri (1656–1680) was the daughter of a Mohawk father and an Algonquin Christian mother. After her conversion, she lived a life of prayer, chastity, and service to the sick, dying at only 24. For Indigenous and North American Catholics alike, her presence on a Vatican stamp represents a powerful acknowledgment of faith’s diversity within the Church.
The stamp forms part of a broader series released November 7, 2025. One set commemorates Pope Francis’ final international journeys in 2024 — to Asia, Oceania, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Corsica — tracing his continued call to fraternity among nations.
Another issue features The Shepherds Bow, a detail from a Flemish tapestry by Pieter van Aelst, chosen as the Vatican’s 2025 Christmas stamp. Its quiet gesture of reverence captures the simplicity and awe of the Nativity.
A tribute to Saint John Henry Newman marks his recent proclamation as a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIV, while another design celebrates the centenary of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux’s canonization. Her “little way” and her promise to “let fall a shower of roses” continue to influence spiritual life worldwide.
The Vatican has also released a philatelic set commemorating 550 years since the birth of Michelangelo Buonarroti, accompanied by postcards highlighting his artistic legacy within the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica.
Completing the series is a diplomatic issue honoring 75 years of formal relations between the Holy See and Indonesia, reflecting the Church’s dedication to dialogue and peace-building.
This year’s Vatican stamp collection captures a global Church in motion: artistic, missionary, and rooted in holiness both ancient and new. From Michelangelo’s Renaissance masterpieces to Kateri Tekakwitha’s humble witness on North American soil, the 2025 series offers a compact but eloquent celebration of faith’s reach across centuries and continents.
