African Lirae
The Director of the Missionary-Ethnological Museum is Msgr. Roberto Zagnoli. The Missionary-Ethnological Museum was first established by
Pius XI in the Lateran Palace, and inaugurated on 21 December 1926.
Pope John XXIII transferred it to the Vatican. The museum contains objects
associated with non-European cultures. They come from the Missionary
Exhibition (1925), the Borgia Museum, and donations made by various
missionary congregations and private donors. Actually this Museum displays
unique objects from all over the world: Asia, Japan, Tibet, Korea, Mongolia, India,
Oceania, Africa and the Americas.
For example, on display are a stone sculpture
of “Quetzalcòatl”, the sacred snake of Mexico, (Aztec, century XV); the Wampum
belt, a unique document of Christianity among the Mic Mac (Canada, 1831);
a cover for the Mass Book of the Chaplain for the second expedition of
Christopher Columbus to Cuba (XVI Century); and a manuscript on white silk, “Letter of Alessandro Hoang to the Bishop of Pechino”, which is the oldest
testimony of Christianity in Korea.
In addition, the thirteen Japanese kakemonos with thirteen Buddha, (XVII
Century); and a Thang-ka representing the Buddha, donated by the Dalai Lama
to His Holiness Pope John Paul II.
The museum is divided into two sections. The first is designed for the general
public and comprises objects illustrating the various forms of religion in
countries outside Europe. The second includes ethnographical collections,
and is intended for scholars.
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