103216 | ITALY & BRITISH EAST INDIES. Pope Leo XIII silver Medal.

103216  |  ITALY & BRITISH EAST INDIES. Pope Leo XIII silver Medal. Issued Year XVII (1894/5). On the founding of the Papal Seminary in British India at Kandy (44mm, 36.23 g, 12h). By Francesco Bianchi at the Rome mint.

 

LEO XIII PONT MAX AN XVII, bust left, wearing zucchetto, mantum, and pallium // FILII TVI INDIA ADMINISTRI TIBI SALVTIS (your own sons, India, will be the heralds of your salvation), female personification of the Catholic Church seated right, holding cross and observing St. Francis Xavier (Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta), who instructs two natives; façade of the seminary in background; in two lines in exergue, XAVERIO • AVSPICE / ET • PATRONO. Edge: Plain.

 

Bartolotti E894; Rinaldi 88. PCGS SP-64. Highly lustrous and prooflike, with some alluring frosting on the devices. An interesting papal issue with a strong East Asian connection.

 

With the papal encyclical Ad extremis Orientis oras, Pope Leo XIII wished to build upon the work of the 16th century missionary in early colonial India, St. Francis Xavier (Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta). In 1893, a papal seminary was announced for the region of the British East Indies (India, Burma, and Ceylon), with it being established in Kandy on the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The seminary would continue in this location until 1955, when it moved to Pune, India.

 

Upload: 19 November 2025.