King Charles III and the Queen Consort will travel to the Vatican next week for a state visit, where the King and Pope Leo will pray together, the first time such a thing has happened in 500 years, if not longer.
Pope Leo XIV is to welcome King Charles III, the head of state of the United Kingdom and the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, to the Vatican on October 22nd and 23rd. While King Charles will not be the first British monarch to visit the Vatican — Queen Elizabeth II visited during her reign, for instance — the two men will pray together at the Sistine Chapel, reckoned by Buckingham Palace to be the first time this will have happened in some 500 years.
This claim dates back to King Henry VIII splitting from Rome in 1534, before there was even a United Kingdom, and Henry was the King of England only.
Queen Elisabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip of Edinburgh, are shown with Pope John Paul II, during their visit to the Vatican. (Photo by Vittoriano Rastelli/Corbis via Getty Images)
Yet King Henry VIII is not known to have ever visited Rome or met the then-Pope himself, so the date of the last time a ‘British’ King prayed alongside the Pope in Rome may have been hundreds of years before even that. King Canute, the Viking King of England, Denmark, and Norway certainly made a pilgrimage to Rome in 1027 — nearly exactly 1,000 years ago — and met Pope John XIX.
During the Sistine Chapel meeting planned for next week, priests from both the Catholic Church and Church of England will pray together — despite the Catholic Church not officially recognising Anglican priests as valid — in a show of Ecumenicalism that will also see a choir brought from Windsor Castle sing.
In another link to the pre-reformation relationship between Britain — then England — and Rome, King Charles will also be made a Royal brother of the confraternity of the Abbey at St Paul’s Outside the Walls, an ancient Church that was once closely linked to the English and even ancient pre-ancient monarchies which helped fund its upkeep. The King will receive a private seat at the Basilica with his coat of arms. As noted by Buckingham Palace:
In further celebration of this new bond, the Basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls has created a special seat for His Majesty, which will remain in the Basilica as a perpetual mark of mutual respect between Pope Leo and The King as Heads of State. The special chair is decorated with His Majesty’s Coat of Arms. The King will use this chair during the service, after which it will remain in the apse of the Basilica for future use by His Majesty and his heirs and successors.
The Times notes Saxon King Offa and Æthelwulf in the 8th and 9th centuries were supporters of St Paul’s, sending money for the protection of St Paul’s and St Peter’s tombs.
Read the full article here