Latvijas Pasts releases a new stamp and a cover in honour of the visit of His Holiness Pope Francis to Latvia on the 24th of September 2018. The first day cancellation of the stamp is scheduled to be held on the day and in the place of the Pope’s visit at 8 Cirīšu Street, Aglona, on the 24th of September 2018 from 9 AM to 7 PM.
The print run of the stamp Pope Francis’ Visit to Latvia is 100,000 copies and its face value is € 0.61, which corresponds to the cost of sending a regular Class A letter within Latvia. The release of the stamp is accompanied by a special postmark and a cover with a print run of 3,000 copies. The new philatelic releases feature a portrait of Pope Francis and the building of Aglona Basilica. The stamp, the cover and the postmark have been designed by the artist Ģirts Grīva.
The pastoral visit of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Baltic states will take place from the 22nd to the 25th of September 2018, during which he will also visit Vilnius and Kaunas in Lithuania and Tallinn in Estonia. The Pope will visit Latvia on the 24th of September – he is expected to take part in the ecumenical service at the Riga Dome Cathedral, as well as celebrate the Holy Mass in Aglona Basilica, meet with senior Latvian officials and representatives of the public and participate in the flower-laying ceremony at the Freedom Monument.
Francis is the 266th Pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the Vatican leader. He was born on the 17th December 1936, and his birth name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio. On the 13th of March 2013 Bergoglio was elected as the Pope, adopting the name of Francis. He became the first Jesuit, the first from the Southern Hemisphere and the first from the Americas to be elected as Pope. He is also the first head of the Roman Catholic Church in the last 1200 years who is from outside Europe. Francis is the first Pope after John Paul I who adopted a papal name that had not previously been used.
