This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Almost every ceremonial object or ornament of the medieval papal monarchy has disappeared or lost its original purpose. Yet one survives: the golden rose.
On Sept. 26, 2026, during Pope Leo XIV's visit to France, he traveled to Lourdes, home to one of the world's most famous shrines to the Virgin Mary. After praying, Leo presented a golden rose to Our Lady of Lourdes—the fifth time he has dedicated a rose to a Marian shrine or image. The ornate rose Leo offered to Lourdes is not that different from its medieval iterations.
The oldest surviving rose is now at the Musée de Cluny in Paris and dates from the early 1300s. Both are golden, with several branches and buds. Yet who receives the roses, and why, has changed dramatically.
As a medieval historian researching the papacy, I frequently find mentions of the roses. They are ubiquitous in medieval chronicles—most of all, in papal accounting registers. The history of the roses' beneficiaries reflects the history of the papacy and how its influence has shifted over the centuries.
Most medieval roses were made of gold and silver, adorned with precious stones such as sapphires and rubies. One of the buds formed a small receptacle that held some musk and balsam, rare and expensive fragrances. The Vatican Apostolic Archives have preserved the accounting registers that itemized many of the roses' costs.
On average, they weighed 11-16 ounces of precious metal and cost the equivalent of 10 years of a laborer's annual wage. The golden rose first appeared during the papacy of Leo IX. On April 18, 1049, the pope exempted a nunnery in Alsace—now in Sainte-Croix-en-Plaine, France—from the legal authority and supervision of the local bishop.
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